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Tony Randall

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Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor, comedian and singer. He is best known for his role as Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. In a career spanning about six decades, Randall received six Golden Globe Award nominations and six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning one.

Biography[]

Randall was born to a Jewish family, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia (née Finston) and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer.

He attended Tulsa Central High School, where he was two years behind future radio commentator Paul Harvey.

Randall attended Northwestern University for a year before going to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham. Randall worked as an announcer at radio station WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. As Anthony Randall, he starred with Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's Candida and Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green.

Randall then served for four years with the United States Army Signal Corps in World War II, including work at the Signal Intelligence Service. After the war, he worked at the Olney Theatre in Montgomery County, Maryland before heading back to New York City.

In the 1940s, one of his first jobs was playing "Reggie" on the long-running radio series I Love a Mystery.

He was in Caesar and Cleopatra with Cedric Hardwicke and Lilli Palmer.

Randall also began appearing on television, notably episodes of One Man's Family.

Tony Randall's first major television role was as a history teacher, Harvey Weskit, in Mister Peepers. He continued to guest star on other shows such as The Gulf Playhouse (directed by Arthur Penn), The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, Kraft Theatre, The Motorola Television Hour, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Appointment with Adventure, and The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse.

Randall replaced Gig Young in the Broadway hit Oh, Men! Oh, Women!.

Randall's first major role in a Broadway hit was in Inherit the Wind portraying Newspaperman E. K. Hornbeck (based on real life cynic H. L. Mencken), alongside Ed Begley and Paul Muni.

On television he was in Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl co-written by Neil Simon. He guest starred on The Alcoa Hour.

Randall's success in Inherit the Wind led to film offers and his first significant big-screen role in Oh, Men! Oh, Women!. It was made at 20th Century Fox who promoted Randall to stardom with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? alongside Jayne Mansfield. He had one of the leads in No Down Payment.

Randall co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in The Mating Game at MGM. He was in a huge hit with Pillow Talk supporting Doris Day and Rock Hudson; he would reunite with Day and Hudson for two more films.

He then starred in an NBC-TV special The Secret of Freedom, which was filmed during the summer of 1959 in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and broadcast on the network during the fall of 1959 and again in early 1960. On TV he was also in The Man in the Moon co-written by Mel Brooks.

Randall was top billed in MGM's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, then had a Pillow Talk style support role in Let's Make Love with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand and Lover Come Back with Hudson and Day.

Randall continued to guest on TV shows including General Electric Theater and Checkmate. In 1961 Randall played a highly dramatic role in "Hangover," an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in which he portrayed an alcoholic business executive who strangles his wife in a drunken rage.

Randall starred as nearly all of the leading characters in the 1964 classic film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, which was based on The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney. In addition to portraying and voicing the eponymous 7 Faces (Dr. Lao, the Abominable Snowman, Merlin, Appolonius of Tyana, The Giant Serpent, Pan, and Medusa), Randall also appeared without makeup in a two-second cameo, as a solemn spectator in the crowd, for a total of 8 roles in the film. The film received an Oscar for William J. Tuttle's makeup artistry.

In 1991, Randall founded the National Actors Theatre (ultimately housed at Pace University in New York City. Their productions included The Crucible, A Little Hotel on the Side, The Master Builder, The Seagull, Saint Joan, Three Men on a Horse, Timon of Athens, The Government Inspector, The Flowering Peach, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The School for Scandal, Inherit the Wind, and The Gin Game. He also did a production of The Sunshine Boys with Klugman which was a big success.

In September 1993, Randall and Jack Klugman reunited in the CBS-TV movie The Odd Couple: Together Again reprising their roles. The story began when, after Felix ruined plans for his daughter Edna's wedding, his wife Gloria threw him out of the house for 11 days, which left him no choice but to move back in with Oscar and to help him recover, getting him back in shape after throat cancer surgery left his voice very raspy.

Randall's later stage productions included Night Must Fall and Judgment at Nuremberg.

On September 4, 1955, Randall and Jack Klugman appeared together with Gena Rowlands in the episode "The Pirate's House" of the CBS anthology series, Appointment with Adventure.

Randall was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and often spoke of his love of opera, saying it was due in no small part to the salaciousness of many of the plotlines. He also admitted to sneaking tape recorders into operas to make his own private recordings. He chided Johnny Carson for his chain-smoking and was generally fastidious. At the time of his death, Randall had appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show 105 times, more often than any other celebrity.

Randall appeared frequently on What's My Line?, Password, The Hollywood Squares, and the $10,000 and $20,000 Pyramids. He also parodied his pompous image with an appearance as a "contestant" on The Gong Show in 1977.

Randall was a guest star on the fifth and final season of The Muppet Show, in an episode that first aired on October 11, 1980, . This was the 100th episode of the show.

On November 7, 1994, Randall appeared on the game show Jeopardy!, as part of a Special Edition Celebrity Jeopardy! episode playing on behalf of the National Actors Theatre. He came in second place after General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. and before Actress Stefanie Powers, with a final score of $9,900.

In 1973, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman recorded an album called The Odd Couple Sings for London Records. Roland Shaw and The London Festival Orchestra and Chorus provided the music and additional vocals. The record was not a chart-topper but is a highly sought-after item for many Odd Couple fans. Randall and Klugman also collaborated for a series of television commercials for Eagle Brand snacks, which can be viewed on YouTube.

Randall was an advocate for the arts. During the summer of 1980, he served as the celebrity host of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's concerts in Central Park, New York City.

He was politically liberal. During the U.S. presidential primaries in 1972, he appeared as the featured celebrity at numerous fundraising house parties for Democratic Party candidate George McGovern.

Randall was married to Florence Gibbs from 1938 until her death from cancer on April 18, 1992. The following year, he said, "I wish I believed I'd see my parents again, see my wife again. But I know it's not going to happen." He remarried on November 17, 1995, to Heather Harlan, an intern in one of his theatrical programs. At the time, Tony was 75 years old and Heather was 25. They lived in a Manhattan apartment and bought a vacation apartment in Key Biscayne, Florida, in 2003. The couple, who had two children—Julia, born on April 11, 1997, and Jefferson, born on June 15, 1998—remained married until his death in May 2004.

In his book Which Reminds Me, Randall maintained that any publicity an actor generates should be about his work, not himself. "The public knows only one thing about me: I don't smoke."

Randall died in his sleep on May 17, 2004, at NYU Medical Center of pneumonia that he had contracted following coronary bypass surgery in December 2003. He had been hospitalized since the operation. His remains are interred at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Filmography[]

Animation Dubbing[]

Animated Films[]

External Links[]

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