The Odd Couple

Background:

“There's only one thing worse than a man who doesn't have strong likes and dislikes, and that's a man who has strong likes and dislikes without the courage to voice them.” Tony Randall

American actor Tony Randall (born in 1920, died in 2004) may be best recalled for portraying Felix Unger (opposite Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison) on the television sitcom “The Odd Couple” (ABC, 1970-1975), from which he won an Emmy Award. Starting out on the Broadway stage in the early 1940s, the Oklahoma native first gained success on the small screen on the Wally Cox 1950s sitcom “Mr. Peepers,” where he received an Emmy nomination for his performance as Harvey Weskitt. Randall also enjoyed a prolific career on the big screen and earned Golden Globe nominations for his performances in “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” (1957), “Pillow Talk” (1959) and “Lover Come Back” (1961). After “The Odd Couple,” Randall starred on “The Tony Randall Show” (1977-1978, earned a Golden Globe nomination) and “Love, Sidney” (1981-1983, earned two Golden Globe nominations). The founder of the National Actors Theater spent the 1990s working tirelessly on stage. His last film credits included “Down with Love” (2003) and “It's About Time” (2005).

Arthur Leonard Rosenberg

Childhood and Family:

The son of Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer, and Julia Finston, Arthur Leonard Rosenberg, who would later be popular as Tony Randall, was born on February 26, 1920, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He had a sister named Edna. Known as Leonard, the future actor graduated from Tulsa Central High School and then enrolled at Northwestern University, where he majored in speech and drama. After a year at Northwestern, he moved to New York City to study at Columbia University and the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. Randall then joined the United States Army during World War II. He served four years in the Signal Corps until he was discharged as a Lieutenant. After his discharge, he returned to New York City to give acting another try.

Randall was married twice. He was married to his first wife, Florence Gibbs, from 1942 until her death on April 18, 1992. He married his second wife, Heather Harlan, on November 17, 1995. They welcomed their first child, daughter Julia Laurette Randall, on April 11, 1997. Their second child, son Jefferson Salvini Randall, was born on June 15, 1998. The couple remained married until his death on May 17, 2004. Randall died in his sleep at NYU Medical Center of complications from pneumonia he contracted following heart surgery in December 2003. He was buried at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

Pillow Talk

Career:

Following years of intensive training in New York City, Tony Randall, then billed as Anthony Randall, launched his stage career in 1941 with a performance in a Broadway production of “Circle of Chalk.” He followed it up with roles in Emlyn Williams' “The Corn Is Green,” opposite Ethel Barrymore, and George Bernard Shaw's “Candida,” with Jane Cowl. After his release from the military, he worked at the Olney Theatre in Montgomery County, Maryland, before moving back to New York City to re-launch his acting career.

In 1946, Randall acted in Katharine Cornell's revival of “The Barretts of Wimpole Street.” His first major role in a Broadway hit arrived many years later when he was cast in “Inherit the Wind,” opposite Paul Muni and Ed Begley. Directed by Margo Jones, the play debuted at the National Theatre on April 21, 1955, and was closed on June 22, 1957. In 1958, he starred as Captain Henry St. James on the musical comedy “Oh, Captain,” which was adapted from the 1953 film “The Captain's Paradise.” Although the production was basically ignored by critics, Randall earned a Tony nomination in the category of Best Actor in a Musical

Randall began appearing on television in the early 1950s and portrayed Mac on the soap opera “One Man's Family” from 1950 to 1952. He soon landed his breakout role as history teacher Harvey Weskitt on the sitcom “Mr. Peepers,” which appeared on NBC form July 1952 to June 1955. The role brought him a 1954 Emmy nomination for Best Series Supporting Actor. Randall continued to guest star in many TV shows before he made his feature acting debut in “Oh, Men! Oh, Women!” (1957), a comedy directed and scripted by Nunnally Johnson. He quickly moved to a leading role in the big screen version of George Axelrod's Broadway play “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” (1957), opposite Jayne Mansfield. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor - Musical/Comedy for his performance. The same year, he also costarred with Joanne Woodward and Sheree North in Martin Ritt's “No Down Payment.”

In 1959, Randall returned to the big screen when he starred with Debbie Reynolds and Paul Douglas in George Marshall's “The Mating Game,” which was loosely based on the British novel “The Darling Buds of May” by H.E. Bates. He was then cast as millionaire Jonathan Forbes on the Michael Gordon directed film “Pillow Talk,” which starred Doris Day and Rock Hudson. His good acting in the romantic comedy earned the actor his next Golden Globe nomination.

In 1960, Randall starred with Eddie Hodges on “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand in the musical comedy “Let's Make Love,” which was directed by George Cukor. The same year, he also acted in the television films “The Man in the Moon,” “So Help Me, Aphrodite” and “Hooray for Love.”

Randall was reunited with Doris Day and Rock Hudson for the 1961 comedy “Lover Come Back,” which was directed by Delbert Mann. Playing the supporting role of Peter Ramsey in the film, Randall picked up a Golden Globe nomination and a 3rd place Golden Laurel for Top Male Comedy Performance for his performance. Next up for Randall, he worked with Kim Novak and James Garner in Michael Gordon's comedy “Boys' Night Out” (1962), had an unaccredited part in the dramatic film “Two Weeks in Another Town” (1962), starring Kirk Douglas, Edward G. Robinson, Cyd Charisse, Claire Trevor, Daliah Lavi, George Hamilton and Rosanna Schiaffino, portrayed Paul Ferris on the comedy “Island of Love” (1963), opposite Robert Preston and Giorgia Moll, and starred in “7 Faces of Dr. Lao” (1964), a film adaptation of the 1935 fantasy novel “The Circus of Dr. Lao” by Charles G. Finney. After starring in the 1964 fantasy “The Brass Bottle” (1964), opposite Burl Ives and Barbara Eden, and having an unaccredited part in the Frank Sinatra produced musical “Robin and the 7 Hoods” (1964), Randall was again reunited with Day and Hudson for the Norman Jewison comedy “Send Me No Flower” (1964). The actor followed it up with roles in the films “Fluffy” (1965), “The Alphabet Murders” (1965), “Bang! Bang! You're Dead!” (1966) and “Hello Down There” (1969, with Janet Leigh).

In 1970, Randall returned to series TV when he was cast as Felix Unger on the television series adaptation of Neil Simon's “The Odd Couple,” opposite Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison. The show ran on ABC from September 24, 1970, to July 4, 1975. For his brilliant performance on the series, he received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Comedy Series three times and Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series once before eventually winning the award in 1975. With Klugman, he later shared a 2004 TV Land Award for Quintessential Non-Traditional Family. During this period, Randall only did one feature film, a Woody Allen movie titled “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask)” (1972).

After “The Odd Couple” came to an end, Randall starred in his own television show, “The Tony Randall Show,” which premiered on ABC on September 23, 1976. As a Philadelphia judge named Walter Franklin, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy in 1977. The show moved to CBS for its second season before being canceled. The last episode aired on March 25, 1978.

In 1979, Randall returned to the big screen when he joined the cast of the comedy film “Scavenger Hunt,” by director Michael Schultz. He went on to have smaller roles in the films “The Gong Show Movie” (1980, starred Chuck Barris, Robin Altman and Brian O'Mullin) and “Foolin' Around” (1980, starred Gary Busey, Annette O'Toole and John Calvin) before headlining the NBC sitcom “Love, Sidney.” The show ran from October 1981 to June 1983. Randall, who performed the theme song for the series, received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Comedy/Musical for his acting.

Throughout the remainder of the 1980s, Randall appeared in several TV films, including “Pigs vs. Freaks” (1984), “Hitler's S.S.: Portrait in Evil” (1985), “Sunday Drive” (1986), “Save the Dog” (1988) and “The Man in the Brown Suit” (1989). He also starred in the film “That's Adequate,” (1989) and had a supporting role in “It Had to Be You” (1989), starring Renée Taylor, Joseph Bologna and Teresa Blake. In addition, his voice was heard in the animated films “My Little Pony: The Movie” (1986) and “The Gnomes' Great Adventure” (1987).

In 1991, Randall founded National Actors Theater, a nonprofit acting company that presents theatrical classics, and worked extensively on the stage during the decade. He appeared on Broadway plays like “The Crucible” (1991), “The Master Builder” (1992), “A Little Hotel on the Side” (1992), “Saint Joan” (1993), “The Government Inspector” (1994), “The School for Scandal” (1995), “The Flowering Peach” (1996) and “Inherit the Wind” (1996), to list a few. He also produced “Timon of Athens,” which ran on Broadway from November 1993 to December 1995 and a revival of the Broadway comedy musical “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” (1995).

Randall sporadically did screen work during this period. He provided the voice of Brain Gremlin in the animated film “Gremlins 2: The New Batch” (1990), reprised his role of Felix Unger for the television film “The Odd Couple: Together Again” (1993) and appeared in Carl Reiner's comedy “Fatal Instinct” (1993). In 1995, he voiced Radius in an episode of “The Magic School Bus” and voiced Mr. Grimm in the animated film “How the Toys Saved Christmas” the following year. He returned three years later when he guest starred in an episode of “Brother's Keeper” (1999).

In the new millennium, Randall appeared in “Judgment at Nuremberg” on Broadway (2001) and in a revival of Bertolt Brecht's “The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui” at the National Actors Theatre (2002). He made his final stage appearance in Luigi Pirandello's “Right You Are (If You Think You Are)” at the National Actors Theatre in 2003. The same year, Randal also portrayed Theodore Banner on the film “Down with Love,” which was directed by Peyton Reed, written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake, and starred Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. He made his final film appearance in Kevin Shinick's debut “It's About Time,” which premiered at the Garden State Film Festival on April 10, 2005.

Awards:

• TV Land: Quintessential Non-Traditional Family, “The Odd Couple,” 2004

• Emmy: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, “The Odd Couple,” 1975

• Laurel: 3rd place, Golden Laurel, Top Male Comedy Performance, “Lover Come Back,” 1962

• Laurel: 2nd place, Golden Laurel, Top Male Comedy Performance, “The Mating Game,” 1959