Tony Randall

Active in several liberal and humanitarian causes, Randall was never afraid of putting his career on the line to espouse his opinions: after delivering an anti-Vietnam broadside on TV in the late '60s, Randall was yanked from his weekly appearances as an expert on Opera Quiz, an intermission feature on the Texaco Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts (he later claimed that he was paid off on his contract, then donated the money to Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign). Randall has also been unafraid to offer his anti-tobacco theories, to the extent of threatening job termination to anyone caught smoking in his presence. He also founded The Myasthenia Gravis Foundation; when asked why he chose this cause to support, he quipped, "My agent told me I needed a disease."

In 1991, Randall created the National Actors Theater, a New York-based repertory company devoted to American and British classics. A year or so after the death of his first wife (circa 1995) Tony Randall reluctantly found himself a tabloid press target when he married Heather Harlan a National Actors Theater ingénue nearly fifty years his junior. Unphased by the gossip, Randall and Harlan stayed together and had two children. In December, 2003, Randall had a triple heart bypass - and subsequently contracted pneumonia -- at the New York University Medical Center, where he would remain for the next several months. On May 17, 2004, Randall died in his sleep at the hospital with Harlan by his side. He had made his final film appearance in Kevin Shinick's debut comedy It's About Time, released in 2005.

Many movie and TV fans will most remember Tony Randall for roles in such cult classics as Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, as well as his star turn as Felix Unger in the long running Odd Couple series. But his status is much broader than that of a character player - he remains one of the few performers to gracefully build a legacy for himself in the three "actor's mediums": film, TV, and most of all - stage - where he became a consummate master of George Bernard Shaw and William Shakespeare. His reputation will thus linger in the entertainment world for decades, as a standard by which new generations of comic actors are judged. As if confirming this status, the lights on Broadway dimmed for eight minutes on May 18, 2004 - the evening following Randall's death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide