Tony Randall the man behind Felix Unger and so much more
On my visit to Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, about 30 km from Midtown Manhattan, I visited the grave of the great actor and singer, Tony Randall, best remembered for his iconic role in The Odd Couple as the neat-freak, hypochondriac perfectionist, Felix Unger.
Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was the son of an art and antiques dealer. As a boy he was reportedly scolded by teachers for making faces and mimicking people in class, which is hard to believe when we see his serious side in The Odd Couple.
A university dropout, Aryeh, who would later change his name to Tony Randall, had his sights set on New York City, where he studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, NYC.
Randall later worked as a radio announcer and served his country for four years in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during the Second World War. After the war, he established himself as a serious stage actor in Inherit the Wind on Broadway and became a genuine movie name with Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and then Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson and Doris Day.
In 1970, at the age of 50, he was offered the role of a lifetime: Felix Unger, alongside Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, in The Odd Couple.
A collage of photos I put together while watching the Odd Couple in syndication.
The series ran for five seasons, from 1970 to 1975, for a total of 114 episodes. It was never a big ratings hit during its original run and was nearly cancelled more than once. However, it found its real audience afterward in syndicated reruns, which I still enjoy today.
“Maximum Homerdrive” : the Simpsons visit a steakhouse called The Slaughterhouse, home of a 16-pound steak challenge called the Sir Loin-A-Lot. The waiter explains that only two people have ever finished it: trucker Red Barclay and Tony Randall, with this portrait on the wall as proof. Classic!
He would go on to do, The Tony Randall Show playing a Philadelphia judge and Love, Sidney notable as one of the first network series with a lead character understood to be gay and later founded the National Actors Theatre in New York, using his own money to bring classic plays to Broadway at affordable prices.
Tony Randall (Left) as Lamberto Laudisi in Pirandello’s comedy “Right You Are,” National Actors Theatre, Tony founded in New York City.
After the death of his first wife, following more than 50 years of marriage, he remarried and became a father for the first time at the age of 77. Tony Randall died on May 17, 2004, in Manhattan. He was 84.
1920-2004
