In addition to the rocket launch I mentioned in the last post, there is also sad news on the ‘net today. One of the faces I grew up with, the terrific Tony Randall, has passed away. Randall is best known for playing neat-freak Felix Unger on the TV version of The Odd Couple, and it’s mostly from this show that I know him. I fondly remember watching TOC with my folks. Randall inhabited the role so successfully that when I saw the original Odd Couple film in later years, I had a hard time accepting Jack Lemmon in the role. I recently saw a few re-runs of TOC and was disapppointed to find that they don’t play as well now as I remember them — this is always a problem with seeing something that you loved as a kid, and if you don’t believe me, just try sitting through an episode of Gilligan’s Island these days — but Randall was still funny.

In addition to TOC, he was also great in a little fantasy film from the 1960s called The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao. If I remember my trivia, this movie was produced and/or directed by the great George Pal and it featured Randall in seven different roles, some of them involving very elaborate make-up. He was skilled enough that each character was utterly distinct from the others. I don’t know if Dr. Lao is available on home video these days, but if you run across a copy somewhere, check it out.
Also, if you were a fan of the recent Ewan MacGregor film Down on Love, you might want to check out the Rock Hudson-Doris Day flicks that inspired it. Tony Randall — who had a cameo in Down on Love that was probably his final film role — appeared in these fluffy little comedies in the same prissy role filled by David Hyde-Pierce in the more recent film.
You won’t have any problem finding an obituary for Tony, but I liked this one from The New York Times. It’s fairly long, very comprehensive and admiring. Also worth checking out is Mark Evanier’s reminiscence of watching Randall and Jack Klugman rehearse an episode of The Odd Couple.