In 1999 the City College of New York honored Randall with the John H. Finley Award for outstanding service to the City of New York. He is best known for his role as Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. Still, he stuck with it, saying he refused "to be brushed aside" by The Times or any other newspaper. But I know it's not going to happen. Tony Randall was born Leonard Rosenberg in Tulsa, Okla., on Feb. 26, 1920. That led to his appearance in 1950 in "Caesar and Cleopatra," which starred Lilli Palmer and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Oh, Women!" His remains are interred at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He had a great love of repertory theater and in 1991 founded, with a million dollars of his own money and much more from the moneyed sources who backed his commercial acting, the National Actors Theater in New York. From October 30 to November 2, 1987, Randall hosted the free preview of HBO's short-lived premium channel Festival.[10]. The following year, he said, "I wish I believed I'd see my parents again, see my wife again. We will miss him very much.”. Randall worked as an announcer at radio station WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. But they certainly remembered Felix. He somehow civilizes the material." One of his first parts was on a weekly show called "I Love a Mystery," which revolved around three adventurers named Jack, Doc and Reggie. Birthplace: Tulsa, OK. Died: 18-May - 2004. His voice was also heard on radio soap operas like "Portia Faces Life," "When a Girl Marries" and "Life's True Story.". Medical Center with his wife, Heather, by his side, said Joe Trentacosta of Springer Associates, Mr. Randall's publicity firm. Periodically, he performed in stage revivals of The Odd Couple with Jack Klugman including a stint in London in 1996. He had been hospitalized since the operation. Mr. Randall was Reggie. In 1946, Randall was cast as one of the brothers in a touring production of Katharine Cornell's revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.[8]. Mr. Randall died in his sleep at N.Y.U. A noted raconteur, Randall co-wrote with Mike Mindlin a collection of amusing and sometimes racy show business anecdotes called Which Reminds Me, published in 1989. Subsequent performances included “Night Must Fall,” “The Gin Game” and “The Sunshine Boys,” which reunited Randall with Klugman, in 1998. She borrowed the boy's pen to write her name. Randall was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and often spoke of his love of opera, saying it was due in no small part to the salaciousness of many of the plotlines. Born Leonard Rosenberg on Feb. 26, 1920, Randall was drawn as a teenager to roadshows that came through his hometown of Tulsa, Okla. Their productions included The Crucible (1991), A Little Hotel on the Side (1992), The Master Builder (1992), The Seagull (1992), Saint Joan (1993), Three Men on a Horse (1993), Timon of Athens (1993), The Government Inspector (1993), The Flowering Peach (1994), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1994), The School for Scandal (1995), Inherit the Wind (1996), and The Gin Game (1997). He had one of the leads in No Down Payment (1957). He starred in the National Actors Theater's production of Luigi Pirandello's "Right You Are," playing the role of Lamberto Laudisi. The show was called "Mr. [14], Randall was married to Florence Gibbs from 1938 until her death from cancer on April 18, 1992. Its purpose was to keep the works playwrights like Ibsen, Chekhov and Arthur Miller before the public, and at a reasonable prices. He had so many frothy parts in the movies and on television that John Leonard wrote in The New York Times in 1976 that Mr. Randall "slips into sitcoms ... as if into a warm bath, to play with the rubber ducks the writers have provided. In 1961 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.[9]. The names of Felix's children on The Odd Couple were Edna and Leonard, named for Randall's sister and Randall himself. She died of cancer in 1992. From 1976–78, he starred in The Tony Randall Show, playing a Philadelphia judge. 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". In 1941 he made his New York stage debut in an adaptation of the 13th-century Chinese fantasy "A Circle of Chalk," and later that year appeared in Shaw's "Candida." episode playing on behalf of the National Actors Theatre. ", During this same period he became national chairman of the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation, a post he occupied for some 30 years. Tony Randall's first major television role was as a history teacher, Harvey Weskit, in Mister Peepers (1952–1955). He was in the TV movie The Littlest Angel (1969), alongside Johnny Whitaker and Fred Gwynne. AKA Arthur Leonard Rosenberg. Among his other television credits are "The Tony Randall Show" (1977-78), in which he played a judge and "Love, Sidney" (1981-83), in which he played a middle-aged man who took in an unwed mother and offered to help raise her child. 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. [16], In his book Which Reminds Me, Randall maintained that any publicity an actor generates should be about his work, not himself. After the new opera house was finally built, Mr. Randall became a frequent visitor, showing up at the stage door for rehearsals and happily sitting through them when he wasn't working himself. “I was lucky enough to know Tony as an actor and friend,” Letterman said Tuesday. Suave, urbane, his rich baritone voice the vehicle for the clipped diction of the demanding elocution professor that Mr. Randall easily could have been, Mr. Randall said he had been pleased to play Felix Unger, whose roommate and temperamental opposite was Oscar Madison, the slovenly, unkempt, cigar-smoking sportswriter played by Jack Klugman. Butterfly.”. Randall was an advocate for the arts. Randall co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in The Mating Game (1959) at MGM. On November 7, 1994, Randall appeared on the game show Jeopardy!, as part of a Special Edition Celebrity Jeopardy! Devotion to theaterIn an effort to bring classic theater back to Broadway, Randall founded and was artistic director of the nonprofit National Actors Theatre in 1991, using $1 million of his own money and $2 million from corporations and foundations. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm; Accident; Accidental Drug Overdose; Acute Bronchitis; Alcohol-related Liver Disease; Alzheimer's Disease; Aneurysm; Angina; Appendicitis; Arrhythmia; Arteriosclerosis; Asphyxia; Assassination; Asthma; Atherosclerosis; Aviation Accident And Incident; Barbiturate Overdose; Bladder Cancer; Bone Cancer; Brain Aneurysm; Brain Cancer; Brain … He studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham. In 1974, Randall and Jack Klugman appeared in television spots endorsing a Yahtzee spinoff, Challenge Yahtzee. The character was portrayed as gay in a television-movie version that preceded the series; the issue of homosexuality was played down in the television series. A Letterman regularRandall’s other famous television persona was as a fixture on late-night talk shows, appearing on Letterman’s “Late Night” and “Late Show” more than 100 times. Randall and Heather’s unconventional love story. At the time of his death, Randall had appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show 105 times, more often than any other celebrity. Randall's later stage productions included Night Must Fall (1999) and Judgment at Nuremberg (2001). He came in second place after General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. and before Actress Stefanie Powers, with a final score of $9,900.[11].