Tony Randall

Tony Randall (February 26, 1920 ? May 17, 2004) was an American comic actor. He was born as Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer, and his wife, Julia Finston. Known as Leonard, he had a sister Edna. 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 was born as Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer, and his wife, Julia Finston. Known as Leonard, he had a sister Edna.

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. Randall 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.

A noted raconteur, Randall co-wrote (with Mike Mindlin) a collection of amusing and sometimes racy show business anecdotes called Which Reminds Me.

Randall began his career on the stage, appearing in minor roles on Broadway, and supporting roles on tours. His first major role in a Broadway hit was in Inherit the Wind in 1955. In 1958 he played the leading role in the musical comedy Oh, Captain!, taking on a role originated on film by Alec Guinness. Oh, Captain! was a critical failure, but a personal success for Randall, who received glowing notices for his legendary dance turn with prima ballerina Alexandra Danilova.

He 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. The names of Unger's children on The Odd Couple were Edna and Leonard, named after Randall's sister and Randall himself.

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? (1957), Pillow Talk (1959), Let's Make Love (1960), Boys' Night Out (1962), The King of Comedy (1983), and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).

He also played the title role(s) in the cult classic The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao.

He appeared in Pillow Talk (1959), the first of three movies in which Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Randall all starred, and, by all accounts, ended up with the best lines ('It takes an early bird to take a worm like me'; on the crying Doris Day: 'I never knew a woman such a size had so much water in her', etc). 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 Ren?e 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.

Tony Randall was the host during the breaks for the October 30 - November 2, 1987 free preview of HBO's short lived premium channel, Festival.

In 1991, he founded the National Actors Theatre (ultimately housed at Pace University in New York City) where he gave his final stage performance in Luigi Pirandello's "Right You Are." Periodically, he performed in stage revivals of The Odd Couple with Jack Klugman including a stint in London in 1996. The following year, Randall and Klugman reunited to appear on Broadway in a revival of The Sunshine Boys.

He was a frequent and popular guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson 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 (actually bragged about) 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." Randall was also a frequent guest on both of David Letterman's late-night shows (Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with David Letterman), making 70 appearances, according to his obituary in the Washington Post; Letterman said that Randall was one of his favorite guests, along with Regis Philbin.

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 (and covering) The New Vaudeville Band's one-hit wonder, "Winchester Cathedral." He mimicked (and somewhat exaggerated) the vibrato style of Carmen Lombardo, and the two of them once sang a duet of Lombardo's signature song "Boo Hoo (You've Got Me Crying for You)" on the Carson show.