Tony Randall, 1920-2004

BY NOEL HOLSTON | STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Blake Green contributed to this story and it was supplemented with an Associated Press report.

May 19, 2004

Tony Randall

Tony Randall died in his sleep Monday night at NYU Medical Center after a long illness. The 84-year-old star of stage and screen had developed pneumonia after undergoing heart-bypass surgery in December.

He had acted as recently as last fall in a revival of Luigi Pirandello's "Right You Are" by the National Actors Theatre, which he founded.

Randall was most widely known for his Emmy-winning turn as fusspot photographer Felix Unger opposite Jack Klugman's slovenly Oscar Madison in the 1970s sitcom based on Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple." But his prickly urbanity, his willingness to make fun of it and his skill as a raconteur also made him one of the most popular talk-show guests in the medium's history.

He was a favorite of hosts from Johnny Carson to Larry King to David Letterman, who once covered the famously fastidious actor in mud.

"I was lucky enough to know Tony as an actor and friend," Letterman said in a statement yesterday. "He appeared on our show over 100 times. Whenever we needed a big laugh, we would bring in Tony. He always made us better for having worked with him. We will miss him very much."

King called Randall "one of the grandest people I ever knew, who was as delightful on screen as off. He will be remembered as an enormous contributor to the arts and a super talent."

Contributions to the arts

After "The Odd Couple," Randall had two short-lived sitcoms, one of which was "The Tony Randall Show," in which he played a stuffy Philadelphia judge, from 1976-78.

From 1981-83, he played the title role in the sitcom "Love, Sidney," as a single, middle-aged commercial artist helping a female friend care for her young daughter. The show was based on a TV movie in which Sidney was gay; in the TV show, the character's sexual orientation was implied, but never specified.

But Randall's more than 60 years in show business also encompassed theater, movies, radio and more theater. An art dealer's son, he was born Leonard Rosenberg in 1920 in Tulsa, Okla., and recalled being smitten for life by road shows that played his hometown.

He majored in speech and drama at Northwestern University in Chicago before heading at age 19 to New York City, where he continued his theatrical education.

Versatility of his work

He made his Broadway debut in 1941 in "A Circle of Chalk," and soon thereafter appeared in "The Corn Is Green" with Ethel Barrymore and "Candida" with Jane Cowl. He was in rehearsals for Elia Kazan's production of "The Skin of Our Teeth" when he was called to the Army. He served from 1942 to '46 in the Signal Corps, emerging as a lieutenant.

The late '40s and 1950s allowed Randall to display a versatility that most of the nation seldom got to see after movies such as the Rock Hudson-Doris Day sex-comedies "Pillow Talk" (1959) and "Lover Come Back" (1961) made him so marketable as the overly orderly type of which his "Odd Couple" character epitomized.

Randall became a regular on humorist Henry Morgan's radio show in the early 1950s, and he was everywhere on TV - one of those performer/personalities whose talents and training dovetailed perfectly with the young, New York-based medium's diverse options. He made the first of dozens of appearances in "golden age" live dramas in 1948 on "Armstrong Circle Theater." He had his first sitcom role in 1952 in "Mr. Peepers," playing history teacher Harvey Weskitt, best friend of star Wally Cox's Robinson Peepers.

Randall simultaneously developed a healthy theater career, appearing in Broadway productions ranging from "Anthony and Cleopatra" to "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" to "Oh, Men! Oh, Women!" He originated the role of cynical reporter E.K. Hornbeck, a character based on H.L. Mencken, in the original 1955 Broadway run of "Inherit the Wind."

The lights of Broadway's theaters were dimmed last night in tribute to Randall's contributions, which in recent years included not just performances but producing, directing and efforts to enrich the district's repertoire.

Founded a theater company

Determined to bring classical theater back to Broadway, Randall in 1991 founded and was artistic director of the nonprofit National Actors Theatre, using $1 million of his own money and $2 million he raised from corporations and foundations.

The company was launched with the first Broadway production of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" in 40 years. Among the subsequent revivals was Simon's "The Sunshine Boys," in which Randall reunited with Klugman. (After Randall's death, Klugman canceled the remaining Milwaukee performances of "An Evening With Jack Klugman," his one-man show scheduled to run through Sunday, and flew to New York.)