Encyclopedia
Tony Randall was an American comic
actor.
Early life
He was born as
Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a
Jewish family in
Tulsa, Oklahoma, the only child of Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer, and his wife, Julia Finston.
Show business
He was first attracted to show business when a ballet company played in Tulsa. He attended
Northwestern University for a year before traveling to
New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer
Martha Graham around 1935. Under the name Anthony Randall, he acted in radio soap operas and worked onstage opposite stars Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's
Candida and
Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's
The Corn Is Green. Tony then served for four years with the
United States Army Signal Corps in
World War II, refusing an entertainment assignment with Special Services. Then he worked at the Olney Theatre in
Montgomery County, Maryland before heading back to
New York City.
Acting career
Randall is perhaps best known for his work on television. His breakthrough role was as gym teacher Harvey Weskit in
Mr. Peepers from 1952-1955. After a long hiatus from the medium, he returned in 1970 as fussbudget Felix Unger in
The Odd Couple, opposite
Jack Klugman, a role he would keep for five years. Subsequently, he starred in
The Tony Randall Show and
Love, Sidney. In the TV movie that served as the latter show's pilot, Sidney Shorr was written as a
gay man, but his character was neutered in the show. Disappointed by this turn of events and the series' lack of acceptance, Randall stayed away from television thereafter.
Randall's film roles included
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? ,
Let's Make Love ,
Boys' Night Out ,
The King of Comedy , and
.
He appeared in
Pillow Talk is a 1959 [i] romantic comedy film [i] which tells the story of a man and woman who shar ...
, the first of three movies in which
Doris Day,
Rock Hudson and Randall all starred. The other two are
Lover Come Back and
Send Me No Flowers. Elements from the plots of these films, particularly
Pillow Talk, were parodied in the 2003 comedy
Down With Love, with
Renée Zellweger in the Doris Day role,
Ewan McGregor in the Rock Hudson, and
David Hyde Pierce as the Tony Randall character. Randall's final role was a cameo in this film.
In 1991, he founded the
National Actors Theatre , and occasionally appeared in its productions.
He was a frequent and popular guest on
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was the full name of NBC's
The Tonight Show [i] during t...
and often spoke of his love of
opera, claiming 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 bootleg recordings. He would often chide
Johnny Carson for his chain-smoking, and was generally fastidious and fussy, much like his Felix Unger characterization. He seemed to have a wealth of facts and trivia at his disposal, and he told Carson that the secret was simply "to retain everything you were supposed to have learned in elementary school."
In keeping with his penchant for both championing and mocking the culture that he loved, during the
Big Band Era revival in the mid-
1960s he produced a record album of 1930s songs,
Vo Vo De Oh Doe, inspired by The New Vaudeville Band's one-hit wonder, "
Winchester Cathedral." He mimicked the vibrato style of Carmen Lombardo, and the two of them once sang a duet of Lombardo's signature song "Boo Hoo " on the Carson show.
Marriages
He was married to Florence Gibbs from 1942 until her death from
cancer in 1992 and then, from November 17, 1995 until his death, to Heather Harlan, with whom he had two children, Julia Laurette Randall and Jefferson Salvini Randall . To say the least, Randall became a father late in life but Heather talked of how he adored his children and how loving he was with them. She said he faced death bravely, but his greatest sorrow was leaving them behind.
Death
At the age of 84 Tony Randall died in his sleep of complications from
pneumonia, which he contracted following bypass surgery in December 2003. He is interred at the
Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Awards
...
.
- Received an honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts, from Pace University in 2003.
Miscellany
- In 1974, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman appeared in television spots endorsing a Yahtzee spinoff, Challenge Yahtzee. Although not identified as Felix and Oscar, the impression they left was clearly that of those two characters, especially as the TV spots were filmed on the same set as The Odd Couple
...
.
- In 1984, Randall endorsed the game Word Quest where the objective was to guess the proper definition of a given word.
- He starred as nearly all of the leading characters in the 1963 film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao is a 1964 film adaptation of the 1935 fantasy novel The Circus of Dr. Lao [i] ...
. The film received an Oscar for William Tuttle's makeup artistry, but many believe Randall never received proper acknowledgement for his versatile performances in the film. - Randall, along with John Goodman
...
and
Drew Barrymore was one of the first guests on the debut episode of
Late Night with Conan O'Brien on September 13, 1993. He would also appear in
Conan's 5th Anniversary Special with the character PimpBot 5000.
- Was one of the earliest advocates against smoking, and often would chide celebrities in person on the air for the habit.
- Randall was mentioned in "Maximum Homerdrive", an episode of The Simpsons is an Emmy [i] and Peabody [i]-winning American [i] animated [i] ...
, for being one of the two men to ever finish Sirloin A Lot, a 16-pound steak. - In September 2003, Randall joked that if President George W. Bush
...
or Vice President
Dick Cheney should come to his funeral, they were to be turned away.
- Tony Randall named Felix Unger's TV children after himself and his sister .
- In 2005, Jack Klugman
...
published Tony And Me: A Story of Friendship, a book about his long friendship with Randall, of their long working relationship and how good Randall had been to Klugman after his cancer operation.
- A fine game player, Randall appeared frequently on What's My Line? was a weekly panel game show [i] originally produced by Mark Goodson [i] and Bill Todman [i] ...
, Password, The Hollywood Squares, and The $10,000 Pyramid was an American [i] television game show [i] where contestants tried to guess ...
. He also sent up his somewhat pompous image with a single appearance as a "contestant" on The Gong Show was a television variety show [i] spoof that was broadcast on NBC [i] and in first-run syndication [i] ...
in 1977.
External links
