It hasn’t been a good month for Jewish entertainers. First Alan King passes over to the giant Borsht Belt in the sky, now Tony Randall (born Leonard Rosenberg) has joined him. May they both be enjoying the dessert table.
For those of you who used to fake sick and stay home from school to watch TV, you know Randall’s turn as Felix Unger on “The Odd Couple” was the highlight of noontime programming (and not just because it was the only alternative to soap opera schlock. We always identified with Randall’s clean-freak character and could never understand why he didn’t just throw out Oscar’s stuff onto the fire escape.) This Emmy award-winning actor’s reputation as a mensch will surely outlive syndacation.