In Remembrance: Tony Randall
Tony Randall, the comedic character actor who co-starred in a trio of
romantic comedies with Rock Hudson and Doris Day and then achieved fame on
the television adaptation of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, has passed
away in New York City on Monday, May 17, 2004. He was 84.
Born Leonard Rosenberg in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on February. 26, 1920, Randall grew up as the son of an art dealer. He attended Northwestern University, studying speech and drama for a year and a half before dropping out and to move to New York City. There, he enrolled at Columbia University. He eventually began studying at the Neighborhood Playhouse under renowned theater teacher Sanford Meisner and dance instructor Martha Graham.
Randall’s early career centered in radio with appearances on such soap operas like Portia Faces Life, When a Girl Marries and Life’s True Story. He made his stage debut in 1941 in a production of the 13th century Chinese fantasy A Circle Of Chalk. He followed that up with a role in a production of Shaw’s Candid. Rehearsals for a 1942 production of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin Of Our Teeth when he was drafted into the Army, though he saw in no overseas combat. Discharged in 1946 he returned to New York appearing on radio on The Henry Morgan Program and on stage in productions of Anthony and Cleopatra and Eva Wolas’ To Tell The Truth.
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Randall (Far Right) with I Love A Mystery castmates Russell Thorsen (left) and Jim Boles. |
In the fall of 1949, Randall landed the role of Reggie on producer Carlton Morse’s revival of his “blood and thunder” adventure serial I Love A Mystery, which had originally ran from 1939 to 1944. The new series of 15 minute episodes ran through the end of 1952 on the Mutual Broadcasting System five days a week, though Randall left the series in June of 1951.
Randall’s first television appearance was as a regular on One Man’s Family, based on the radio serial authored by his former I Love A Mystery boss Morse, from 1950 to 1952. He then landed the role of Harvey Weskitt on the comedy Mr. Peepers that starred comedian Wally Cox and ran from 1952 to 1955.
Randall’s first major film role was that of Rockwell P. Hunter in the comedy Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? in 1957. He followed this up with appearances in a trio of Rock Hudson/ Doris Day comedies, Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964) always playing Hudson’s best friend. He also appeared in such romantic comedies as The Mating Game (1959) with Debbie Reynolds, Let's Make Love (1960) with Marilyn Monroe and Boy’s Night Out (1962) with Kim Novak. In 1964, Randall appeared in the fantasy The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, portraying eight characters in the film. He finished out the 60s with a few more minor roles in films.
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Randall and Odd Couple co-star Jack Klugman. |
In
1970 Randall was cast as the opera-loving, clean freak Felix Unger on
television's The Odd Couple opposite Jack Klugman's sloppy
sportswriter Oscar Madison. The series ran for fiver seasons. Randall earned
an Emmy Award in 1975, following the show's cancellation. The show continued
to grow in popularity in syndicated reruns, cementing their portrayal as
mismatched divorced friends in the public's mind. The two would team for
commercials in the 1970s and 90s and appeared together on Broadway in a 1999
revival Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. They revived their Felix and
Oscar characters for a 1993 made for television movie. Randall also played
Felix in a Chicago revival of Simon's original play in 1994.
Randall made two more attempts at sitcom
success. In 1976 he starred as a Philadelphia judge in the eponymously named
The Tony Randall Show. His 1981 series Love, Sidney attracted
much critical praise and religious and conservative criticism. Randall’s
character Sidney Shorr had been mentioned as being gay in the made for
television movie Sidney Shorr: A Girl’s Best Friend that launched the
series, though that aspect was dropped from the subsequent series. It marked
the second time that a character on a television series was openly gay,
following Billy Crystal’s character on Soap. Neither series caught on
with the public and were soon cancelled.
In the 1980s, Randall returned to his radio roots, supplying voices for the animated My Little Pony: The Movie (1986) and The Gnome’s Great Adventure (1987) and the live action Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). He also appeared on broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera expounding his love of various operatic composers.
In 1988, Randall starred in the Broadway production of M Butterfly in the role of a middle-aged diplomat who falls in love with a Japanese woman who turns out to be a male spy in disguise. He would often site it to be his favorite work as an actor.
Randall’s quick and urbane wit made him a frequent favorite guest on several talk and variety shows. Appearances on The Flip Wilson Show and The Sonny and Cher Show helped those shows to win Emmy Awards for the episodes he appeared on. He has made more appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson than any other actor. It was his many stints on Carson’s talk show that inspired director Martin Scorsese to cast Randall as himself in the film King Of Comedy (1983). Randall also made many appearances on host David Letterman’s two late night talk shows for NBC and CBS.
In 1991, Randall launched the National Actors Theater, a nonprofit company dedicated to staging classic works by the likes of Pirandello, Shakespeare and Chekhov on and off-Broadway. He appeared in the company’s productions of The Inspector General (1992) and Brecht’s The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui (2002). His last appearance with the company was in December 2003 in a production of Luigi Pirandello's Right You Are.
Randall's last film appearance was in Down With Love (2003), an homage to the Rock Hudson/ Doris Day comedies he had appeared in in the 1960s.