Silly Thinking

Remembering Tony Randall.


Tony Randall died late Monday night at the age of 84. A deft comedic actor, Randall first hit it big on television ( a medium that would give him his most exposure and fame) as Wally Cox’s sidekick in “Mr. Peepers” in 1952. In the 70’s Tony Randall would forever become “Felix Unger” to Jack Klugman’s “Oscar Madison” in the TV adaptation of Neal Simon’s “The Odd Couple”, the series ran on ABC for six seasons.
For me, Tony Randall was a panelist, with 104 appearances on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and well over 100 appearances on the two late night talk shows hosted by David Letterman. And game shows, if you have cable TV and watch GSN, you can still find Randall on “Password”, “What’s My Line”, “Match Game” and literally dozens of others. He was always quick, funny, and smart.
Tony Randall was first and foremost a stage actor, he loved the New York theatre and founded a company there while in his mid 70’s. He was beloved by audiences and colleagues alike, last night all the theatres on Broadway went dark at 8 pm to pay the highest tribute Broadway can bestow on one of it’s own.

If you are like us, when someone in the entertainment business or the arts die we like to review their work and enjoy their performances, to sort of honor them.
The TV shows are obvious and easy to locate, I thought I would give you a short list of some memorable Tony Randall motion pictures you might want to take a look at.

1.” Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” was Tony Randall’s first movie (1957) and one of his few starring roles. Very funny film co- stars Jayne Mansfield and is a broad spoof of the movie business.

2. “Pillow Talk”. The role that would most identify Tony Randall, the slightly prissy, uptight, sophisticated best friend (Everybody on “Frasier” was doing Tony Randall), was played to a golden turn in this Rock Hudson- Doris Day masterpiece. (This role would become known as the ‘Tony Randall part’ and others, like Gig Young, would play it in other films but it always ‘the Tony Randall part’.

3. “Lover Come Back” another Doris Day comedy enhanced with Tony Randall’s hilarious presence.

4. “Boys Night Out” a precursor to “Old School” with James Garner and Randall sharing a bachelor pad, even though they're married.

5. “Send Me No Flowers” by 1964 (when this film was made) Randall had made a series of modestly budgeted Universal comedies that he starred in. All of them (“Fluffy”, “The Brass Bottle” etc.) were far better than they should have been. This would be the last opportunity to reunite with Rock and Doris it also gave Tony Randall his funniest moments on screen.

6. “The 7 Faces Of Dr. Lao” in that same year (1964) Tony Randall starred as 7 different characters in this ambitious family film produced by George Pal and co-starring Barbara Eden. In heavy make up it is impossible to believe some of these people are Tony Randall. A true under viewed classic and a showcase for Randall.

7. “The Alphabet Murders” stars Tony as Hercule Poirot in this British comedy mystery that pre dates the big budget Poirot films that followed a decade later.

8. “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex (But Were Afraid To Ask)”. Woody Allen’s funny (but uneven) comedy spoof co-stars Tony Randall as the CEO of the human brain during orgasm.

9. “King Of Comedy”. Martin Scorcesse’s scorching look at TV talk show fame had to have Randall as himself.

10. “Down With Love” Tony’s last screen appearance last year is a fitting big screen farewell as Fox tried to remake the Doris Day comedies and cast “Frasier’s” David Hyde Pierce in the Tony Randall part and had Randall come in for a cameo appearance.

On hearing of Tony Randall’s death yesterday Pierce said “Oh my God, now who am I going to steal from?”.

Indeed.