Tony Randall Tony Randall, the wispy-looking, rubber-faced comedian who scored his greatest fame as the fusspot Felix Unger on the TV sitcom, The Odd Couple, has died in New York aged 84.
He was born Leonard Rosenberg in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his father was an art dealer. He was drawn to acting after a ballet troupe swooped into town for a dazzling performance and was soon getting laughs for his talents at mimicry, although more than one teacher's note went home saying, "Please stop him from making faces."
He attended Northwestern University for a year before going to New York to study at the Neighbourhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.
After working on radio and stage, Randall achieved significant popularity in an early 1950s US situation comedy called Peepers. In Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), he was the unlikely co-star of Jayne Mansfield and followed this with several roles as the fussy foil to Rock Hudson and Doris Day in romantic comedies such as Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). He played an alcoholic car salesman in No Down Payment (1957), took the seven title roles in 7 Faces of Dr Lao (1964), and played Poirot in Agatha Christie's The Alphabet Murders (1965).
But Randall was primarily a TV star and no role suited him better than Felix Unger, the compulsively tidy photographer who roomed with best friend and fellow divorcé, unkempt sportswriter Oscar Madison.
Neil Simon had a long-running Broadway hit with The Odd Couple with Art Carney and Walter Matthau, and Jack Lemmon and Matthau were in the 1968 film version. But Randall and Jack Klugman became most identified with the roles, largely through syndication. Their show ran from 1970 to 1975, and in its last year Randall won an Emmy Award for the outstanding lead actor in a comedy series. The show was also cancelled at the same time, leading him to quip, "I'm so happy I won. Now if I only had a job."
He founded the National Actors Theatre in New York in 1991 with $1 million of his own money. Focusing largely on revivals of classics, the company received mixed reviews as it produced The Crucible, Night Must Fall, The Gin Game and The Seagull, among other works. But Randall's name and passion attracted established talent, including Martin Sheen, Charles Durning, Julie Harris, George C. Scott and Matthew Broderick.
In 1992, his wife of 54 years, the former Florence Gibbs, died of cancer. In 1995, he married Heather Harlan, who worked for the National Actors Theatre and was five decades his junior. At 77 he fathered his first child. His survivors include his wife and their two children.
Randall spent recent years as spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association, saying that he was well qualified because he had attended so many funerals. Outspoken against Republicans, he joked that although he hoped his funeral would be attended by far-flung dignitaries, that his friends should bar George W. Bush and Dick Cheney "because everyone knew how much I hated them".
In his autobiography, Which Reminds Me, he suggested his own epitaph: "I'm not going to take this lying down."