Tony Randall (February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor, producer, and director, best known for his role as Felix Unger in the television adaptation of Neil Simon's play, The Odd Couple.
For Gremlins 2: The New Batch, he voices Brain Gremlin.
Biography[]
Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg, to a Jewish family, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia (née Finston) and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer. He attended Tulsa Central High School.
Randall attended Northwestern University for a year before going 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. Randall worked as an announcer at radio station WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. As Anthony Randall, he starred with 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. After the war, he worked at the Olney Theatre in Montgomery County, Maryland before heading back to New York City.
Randall was married to Florence Gibbs from 1942 until her death from cancer in 1992. The following year, he said, "I wish I believed I'd see my parents again, see my wife again. But I know it's not going to happen." He remarried on November 17, 1995, to Heather Harlan, an intern in one of his theatrical programs. At the time, Tony was 75 years old and Heather 25. The couple lived in a Manhattan apartment and bought a vacation apartment, in Key Biscayne, in 2003. They had two children, Julia and Jefferson, and remained married until his death, in May, 17 2004.
In his book Which Reminds Me, he said that any publicity an actor generates should be about his work, not himself. "The public knows only one thing about me: I don't smoke." In 1995 he made his engagement and marriage to Harlan and his fatherhood public.
Death[]
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. His remains are interred at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York State.
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