There's a saying: "Your face is your fortune." Marty Feldman had received a double-whammy. His nose was mangled in his youthful years in a boxing match; his walleyed orbs were the result of both a hyperactive thyroid and a botched operation after a car accident before his 30th birthday.
Feldman had a number of absurd and varied jobs in his youth. These included being a kitchen hand, message boy for an advertising agency, jazz musician in clubs, greyhound racetrack tipster, and an assistant to an Indian fakir in his side-show acts. He was deported from Paris for vagrancy as a teenager when he pretended to be an innocent youth, impressed with the work of an American sculptor pretending to be French. Feldman, working on commission for the sculptor, lured gullible tourists as customers.
Feldman is best remembered by American audiences for his role as Igor (pronounced "Eye-gore") in Mel Brooks' spoof "Young Frankenstein" (1974). Gene Wilder, who co-wrote the film with Brooks and starred as the titular Frankenstein, stated on numerous occasions that he considered Feldman the heart of the film. Brooks agreed completely with this sentiment.
The shifting hump on Igor's back was an ad-libbed gag. Feldman had been surreptitiously shifting the hump back and forth for several days when cast members finally noticed. It was then added to the script.
Supposedly the scene which required the most takes to be filmed was the one in which Igor bites Elizabeth's animal wrap. The reason was because each time Feldman did it he was left with a piece of fur in his mouth, which caused the other actors and actresses to laugh hysterically. (IMDb)
