In Memory of Actor Tony Randall ('The Odd Couple'): 20 Years After His Tragic Death

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It's been two decades since beloved Emmy-winning actor Tony Randall died at 84 following a long illness. He was best known as persnickity photographer Felix Unger on the TV adaptation of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple (ABC, 1970-1975). The ever-loyal-to-stage and opera-loving actor also found fame on the talk show circuit, and in classic Rock-Hudson/Doris Day films like Pillow Talk (1959) and Lover Come Back (1961). This is his story.

A Closer Look

Tony Randall was born Leonard Rosenberg on February 26, 1920, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where as a teen he drawn to traveliong roadshows.

He attended Northwestern University before heading at 19 to New York, where he made his stage debut in The Circle of Chalk (1941).

After serving in World War II from 1942 to 46, Randall returned to New York, making early radio and TV appearances. In 1957, he made his big-screen debut with a starring role in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (a play on words and names in reference to his friend and future co-star Rock Hudson).

Randall continued to make movies and TV guest appearances.

Then Came Felix Unger

In 1970, producer Garry Marshall, who began his career on The Dick Van Dyke Show, hired Tony Randall to play Felix Unger in the TV edition of The Odd Couple.

A few years before, the Neil Simon play had been a big hit at the movies with Jack Lemmon playing Felix, opposite Walter Mattahew as the dissheveled sports writer Oscar Madison.

In the TV rendition opposite Randall, Jack Klugman played Oscar. The show lasted five years, earning both Randall and Klugman an Emmy.

Other Tony Randall Shows

Following his popular stint on The Odd Couple, Tony Randall starred in two short-lived sitcoms: The Tony Randall Show (ABC, CBS, 1976-1978), filmed with a studio audience, and Love, Sydney (NBC, 1981-1983), videotaped without a studio audience or laugh track.

In The Tony Randall Show he played a cranky Philadelphia judge named Walter Franklin. The series was critically-acclaimed, but never found its voice or audience.

In Love, Sidney, Randall portrayed Sidney Shorr, a single, middle-aged commercial artist helping a platonic female friend (played by Swoosie Kurtz) care for her young daughter.

The sitcom was based on the 1981 TV-movie, Sidney Shorr: A Girl's Best Friend, in which the character was gay. But in the half-hour weekly follow-up, Sidney's sexual orientation was implied, but never clarified; this at a when being gay on television was taboo.

A TV Talk Show Prince of a Guest

Beyond his sitcoms and movies, Tony Randall was a popular staple on TV shows including daytime's The Mike Douglas Show, amd late-night programs, such as the Late Night and Late Show editions hosted by David Letterman (with whom he made over 100 aappearances).

Randall also did more guest spots that any other personality on The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson.

In 1993, during Conan O’Brien's initial reign as TV talk show royalty, Randall was his first guest on his debut episode.

Devoted To Theatre

In 1991, Tony Randall, dedicated to bring classic theater back to Broadway, founded and was artistic director of the nonprofit National Actors Theatre. In the process, he utilized $1 million of his own money and $2 million from corporations and foundations.

The company’s premiere production was a revival of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible (starring Martin Sheen and Michael York), which had not seen the Broadway stage in over four decades.

Subsequent productions included Night Must Fall, The Gin Game and The Sunshine Boys (in which Randall reunited with Jack Klugman in 1998).

Randall also performed in the Tony Award-winning presentation of M. Butterfly.

Behind the Scenes Acitivities

Tony Randall, a health and fitness guru, was a social advocate who lobbied against smoking in public places, marched in Washington against apartheid in the 1980s, and helped raise funds for AIDS research in the 1990s.

Behind the Scenes Romance

Tony Randall was married to college sweetheart Florence Randall for 54 years until she her demise from cancer in 1992.

In 1995, Randall wed Heather Harlan, 50 years his junior, and an intern with his National Actors Theatre. Then-New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani presided over their wedding ceremony.

The couple had two children: 7-year-old Julia Laurette and 5-year-old Jefferson Salvini, resulting in Randall becoming a first-time father in his 70s.

His Final Days

In the spring of 2004, Tony Randall entered the New York University Medical Center after starring in a revival of Luigi Pirandello’s play Right You Are, the 20th production of his National Actors Theatre.

While hospitalized, he developed pneumonia after heart bypass surgery, and then died in his sleep on May 17, 2004.