Tony Randall is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon.
44 Facts About Tony Randall
2.
Tony Randall was born to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Moescha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer.
3.
Tony Randall attended Northwestern University for a year before going to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.
4.
Tony Randall studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham.
5.
Tony Randall worked as an announcer at radio station WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts.
6.
Tony Randall served for four years with the United States Army Signal Corps in World War II, including work at Arlington Hall for the codebreaking Signal Intelligence Service.
7.
One of Tony Randall's first acting jobs was playing "Reggie" in the long-running 1940s radio series I Love a Mystery.
8.
In 1946, Tony Randall was cast as one of the brothers in a touring production of Katharine Cornell's revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.
9.
Tony Randall began appearing on television, notably episodes of One Man's Family.
10.
Tony Randall continued to guest-star on other shows such as The Gulf Playhouse, The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse, Kraft Theatre, The Motorola Television Hour, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Appointment with Adventure, and The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse.
11.
Tony Randall played one of the leads in No Down Payment.
12.
Tony Randall appeared in Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, Goodyear Theatre, The United States Steel Hour, Sunday Showcase and Playhouse 90.
13.
Tony Randall appeared in the hit film Pillow Talk supporting Doris Day and Rock Hudson; he would reunite with Day and Hudson for two more films.
14.
Tony Randall starred in an NBC-TV special, The Secret of Freedom, which was filmed during the summer of 1959 in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and broadcast on the network during the fall of 1959 and again in early 1960.
15.
Tony Randall was top-billed in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from MGM in 1960.
16.
Tony Randall had a Pillow Talk-style support role in Let's Make Love with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand, and Lover Come Back with Hudson and Day.
17.
Tony Randall continued to guest on TV shows including General Electric Theater and Checkmate.
18.
In 1961, Tony Randall played a highly dramatic role in "Hangover," an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in which he portrayed an alcoholic business executive who strangles his wife in a drunken rage.
19.
Tony Randall played the lead in The Brass Bottle and made one last film with Hudson and Day, Send Me No Flowers.
20.
Tony Randall took the lead in Fluffy, a comedy about a lion; The Alphabet Murders, playing Hercule Poirot for Frank Tashlin; Our Man in Marrakesh, as a secret agent; and Hello Down There.
21.
Tony Randall returned to Broadway in UTBU, which had only a short run.
22.
Tony Randall appeared in the TV movie The Littlest Angel with Johnny Whitaker and Fred Gwynne.
23.
Tony Randall returned to television in 1970 as Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, opposite Jack Klugman, a role that lasted five years.
24.
In 1973, he was hired to play the voice of Templeton the gluttonous rat in Charlotte's Web, and recorded the part, but was replaced in the film by Paul Lynde, as Tony Randall's voice was perceived as too sophisticated by the director, who wanted Templeton to have a nasal voice.
25.
Tony Randall had roles in Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid, Scavenger Hunt, and Foolin' Around.
26.
Tony Randall starred in the NBC series Love, Sidney from 1981 to 1983.
27.
In 1989, Randall returned to Broadway as a replacement in M Butterfly.
28.
In 1991, Tony Randall founded the National Actors Theatre, ultimately based at Pace University in New York City.
29.
Tony Randall was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and often spoke of his love of opera and the salaciousness of many of its plotlines.
30.
Tony Randall admitted to sneaking tape recorders into operas to make his own private recordings.
31.
Tony Randall chided Johnny Carson for his chain smoking and was generally fastidious.
32.
At the time of his death, Tony Randall had appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show 105 times, more often than any other celebrity had appeared.
33.
Tony Randall parodied his pompous image with an appearance as a "contestant" on The Gong Show in 1977.
34.
Tony Randall was a guest star on the fifth and final season of The Muppet Show in an episode that first aired on October 11,1980.
35.
Tony Randall would appear in Conan O'Brien's 5th Anniversary Special with the character PimpBot 5000.
36.
Tony Randall was a frequent guest as well 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.
37.
Letterman said that Tony Randall was one of his favorite guests, along with Regis Philbin.
38.
Tony Randall came in second place behind General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.
39.
Tony Randall was married to his high school sweetheart, Florence Gibbs, from 1938 until her death from cancer on April 18,1992.
40.
On November 17,1995, at the age of 75, he married 25-year-old Heather Harlan, an understudy from the production of The School for Scandal in which Tony Randall was starring at National Actors Theatre; the ceremony was officiated by Rudy Giuliani.
41.
Tony Randall was an active supporter of Eugene McCarthy during the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries.
42.
Tony Randall's name was featured on the master list of Richard Nixon's political opponents.
43.
Tony Randall died in his sleep on May 17,2004, at NYU Medical Center of pneumonia that he had contracted following coronary bypass surgery in December 2003.
44.
Tony Randall's remains are interred at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.