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Nedra Volz
Volz at the 39th Emmy Awards
Born	Nedra Gordonier (1908-06-18)June 18, 1908 Montrose, Iowa, U.S.
Died	January 20, 2003(2003-01-20) (aged 94) Mesa, Arizona, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1973–1996
Spouse	Oren Volz (m. 1944–1987) «start: (1944)–end+1: (1988)»"Marriage: Oren Volz to Nedra Volz" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Nedra_Volz)

Nedra Volz (née Gordonier, June 18, 1908 – January 20, 2003) was an American film and television actress.

Early life and career[link]

Born in Montrose, Iowa, she began her career in the family tent show, and appeared in vaudeville as a toddler (called "Baby Nedra"). She ended up in the 1970s as a well-recognized supporting character actress, primarily on television and also in feature films. She often played grandmothers or feisty little old ladies.

In the early 1930s, Volz was featured vocalist with Cato's Vagabonds, a Des Moines, Iowa, big band that briefly enjoyed national popularity. Cato never made records, but Nedra managed to appear on exactly one 78 side, with the orchestra of Will Osborne in 1933.

Her most notable appearances include:

• Aunt Iola, Edith Bunker's favorite aunt on All in the Family, 1978.
• Housekeeper Adelaide Brubaker on Diff'rent Strokes from January 1980 until May 1982.
• Post Office Employee Miz Emma Tisdale on The Dukes of Hazzard starting in November 1980 until 1984.
• "Big Ed" in the Paul Bartel spoof Lust in the Dust
• Mother B. (Winona Beck) in Filthy Rich.
• Loretta Houk in the film Moving Violations (1985).
• Lana in the film Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
• Esther in the TV show Alice in 1978.
• Pearl Sperling in the 1985 season of The Fall Guy.

Aside from these regular parts, she also appeared in a great many guest roles, including 'Mission of Peace', a 1986 episode of The A-Team, as one of a group of senior citizens forced into asking the team for help. In 1978, Volz appeared as a protester Mrs. Burstyn on the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati. In 1980, she appeared in several Jack in the Box TV spots as they blew up Jack. In 1989, she did two roles in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, Mrs. Perwinkle and Angelica.

Volz continued to act well into her 80s. In Moving Violations, director Neil Israel allowed her to do many stunts herself, including being lifted into a window and falling head-first onto the floor. Volz's last acting role was in The Great White Hype in 1996.

Personal life[link]

In 1944, at the age of 36, Nedra married Oren Volz. The marriage produced three children, Edward Volz, Linda Defenderer, and Barbara Lee Volz (1939–1992). Oren Volz died in 1987. Nedra lived in Upland, California through the 1980s and 1990s. She was a volunteer Official Celebrity Spokesperson for D.A.R.E., in Ontario, California.

Death[link]

On January 20, 2003, Volz died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Mesa, Arizona.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Nedra Volz at the Internet Movie Database
• Nedra Volz at Find a Grave

Tony Randall
Randall in 2003
Born	Arthur Leonard Rosenberg (1920-02-26)February 26, 1920 Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
Died	May 17, 2004(2004-05-17) (aged 84) New York City, New York, USA
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	1940s–2003
Spouse	Florence Gibbs (1942-1992; her death) Heather Harlan (1995-2004; his death; 2 children)

Tony Randall (February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor, comic, producer and director.^[1][2]

Early years[link]

Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia (née Finston) and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer.^[3] He attended Tulsa Central High School.^[4]

Randall attended Northwestern University for a year before traveling to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham around 1935. As Anthony Randall, he worked onstage opposite stars Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's Candida and Ethel Barrymore in Emlyn Williams's The Corn Is Green. Randall then served for four years with the United States Army Signal Corps in World War II, refusing an entertainment assignment with Special Services. Then he worked at the Olney Theatre in Montgomery County, Maryland before heading back to New York City. Prior to his appearance in "Candida", Randall worked as an announcer at radio station WTAG, Worcester MA.^[5]

Career[link]

Randall began his career on the stage, appearing in minor roles on Broadway, and supporting roles on tours. In the 1940s one of his first breaks was playing "Reggie" on the long-running radio series I Love a Mystery. In 1946, he was cast as one of the brothers in a touring production of Katharine Cornell's revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.^[6] His first major role in a Broadway hit was in Inherit the Wind in 1955 portraying Newspaperman E. K. Hornbeck (based on real life cynic H. L. Mencken). In 1958, he played the leading role in the musical comedy Oh, Captain!, taking on a role originated on film by Alec Guinness. Oh, Captain! was a financial failure, but a personal success for Randall, who received glowing notices and a Tony Award nomination for his legendary dance turn with prima ballerina Alexandra Danilova.

Television[link]

Randall (left) with Jack Klugman in the publicity photo of The Odd Couple, 1972.

He is perhaps best known for his work on television. His breakthrough role was as history teacher Harvey Weskit in Mr. Peepers (1952–1955). He had the starring role in an NBC-TV special The Secret of Freedom which was filmed during the summer of 1959 in Mount Holly, New Jersey, and broadcast on the network during the fall of 1959 and again in early 1960.

After a long hiatus from the medium, he returned in 1970 as fussbudget Felix Unger in The Odd Couple, opposite Jack Klugman, a role he would keep for five years. The names of Unger's children on The Odd Couple were Edna and Leonard, named after Randall's sister and Randall himself. In 1974, Randall and Jack Klugman appeared in television spots endorsing a Yahtzee spinoff, Challenge Yahtzee. They appeared in character as Felix and Oscar, and the TV spots were filmed on the same set as The Odd Couple.

Subsequently, he starred in The Tony Randall Show, in which he played a Philadelphia judge, and Love, Sidney. In the TV movie that served as the latter show's pilot, Sidney Shorr was clearly written as a gay man, but his character's sexuality was made ambiguous when the series premiered. Disappointed by what he perceived as censorship (plus the series' lack of acceptance), Randall refused to star in any more television shows.

Randall was the host during the breaks for the October 30 – November 2, 1987 free preview of HBO's short-lived premium channel Festival.^[7]

In September 1993, Randall and Jack Klugman reunited once again in the CBS-TV movie The Odd Couple: Together Again reprising their roles as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison. The story began when, after Felix ruined plans for his daughter Edna's wedding, his wife Gloria threw him out of the house for 11 days, which left him no choice but to move back in with Oscar and to help him recover, getting him back in shape after throat cancer surgery left his voice very raspy.

Film[link]

He starred as nearly all of the leading characters in the 1964 cult classic film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, co-starring Barbara Eden. The film received an Oscar for William J. Tuttle's makeup artistry.

Randall's other film roles included Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957), The Mating Game (1959), Pillow Talk (1959), Let's Make Love (1960), Boys' Night Out (1962), The Brass Bottle (1964), Hello Down There (1969), The King of Comedy (1983) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990).

The hand prints of Tony Randall in front of The Great Movie Ride at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park.

Pillow Talk was the first of three movies in which Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Randall all starred. Randall, by all accounts, ended up with the best lines ("It takes an early bird to take a worm like me"; on the crying Doris Day: "I never knew a woman that size had that much water in her", etc.). The other two are Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1963). Elements from the plots of these films, particularly Pillow Talk, were parodied in the 2003 comedy Down With Love, with Renée Zellweger in the Doris Day role, Ewan McGregor in the Rock Hudson, and David Hyde Pierce as the Tony Randall character, with Randall himself playing McGregor's Boss.

Stage[link]

In 1991, he founded the National Actors Theatre (ultimately housed at Pace University in New York City) where starred in The Inspector General(1994), Three Men on a Horse (1993), and gave his final stage performance in Luigi Pirandello's Right You Are (If You Think You Are) in 2003.

Periodically, he performed in stage revivals of The Odd Couple with Jack Klugman including a stint in London in 1996. The following year, Randall and Klugman reunited to appear on Broadway in a revival of The Sunshine Boys. From 1988 to 1990, he appeared in John Dexter's production of M. Butterfly.

Guest appearances[link]

On September 4, 1955, Randall and Jack Klugman appeared together with Gena Rowlands in the episode "The Pirate's House" of the CBS anthology series, Appointment with Adventure.

Randall was a frequent and popular guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and often spoke of his love of opera, claiming it was due in no small part to the salaciousness of many of the plotlines. He also admitted to (actually bragged about) sneaking tape recorders into operas to make his own private bootleg recordings. He would often chide Johnny Carson for his chain-smoking, and was generally fastidious and fussy, much like his Felix Unger characterization. He seemed to have a wealth of facts and trivia at his disposal, and he told Carson that the secret was simply "to retain everything you were supposed to have learned in elementary school." At the time of his death, Randall had appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show 105 times, more often than any other celebrity.

Randall appeared frequently on What's My Line?, Password, The Hollywood Squares, and the $10,000 and $20,000 Pyramids. He also sent up his somewhat pompous image with a single appearance as a "contestant" on The Gong Show in 1977.

First aired on October 11th of 1980, Randall was a guest star on the 5th and final season of The Muppet Show. This was the 100th episode of the show.

Randall, along with John Goodman and Drew Barrymore was one of the first guests on the debut episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien on 13 September 1993. He would also appear in Conan's 5th Anniversary Special with the character PimpBot 5000. Randall was also a frequent guest on both of David Letterman's late-night shows Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with David Letterman, making 70 appearances, according to his obituary in the Washington Post; Letterman said that Randall was one of his favorite guests, along with Regis Philbin.

On November 7, 1994, Randall appeared on the game show Jeopardy!, as part of a Special Edition Celebrity ''Jeopardy!'' episode, playing on behalf of the National Actors Theatre. He came in second place after General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. and before Actress Stefanie Powers, with a final score of $9,900.^[8]

In 1999, Randall was featured in the Simpsons episode "Maximum Homerdrive" (season 10, episode 17). A picture of Randall is seen on a wall of fame in a steakhouse, displaying the only two persons who have finished a 16-lb. steak called "Sir Loinalot".

Other creative activities[link]

In 1973, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman recorded an album called "The Odd Couple Sings" for London Records. Roland Shaw and The London Festival Orchestra and Chorus provided the music and additional vocals.^[9] The record was not a chart-topper but is a highly sought-after item for many Odd Couple fans.^{[citation needed]}

A noted raconteur, Randall co-wrote with Mike Mindlin a collection of amusing and sometimes racy show business anecdotes called Which Reminds Me, published in 1989.

In keeping with his penchant for both championing and mocking the culture that he loved, during the Big Band era revival in the mid-1960s he produced a record album of 1930s songs, Vo Vo De Oh Doe, inspired by (and covering) The New Vaudeville Band's one-hit wonder, "Winchester Cathedral." He mimicked (and somewhat exaggerated) the vibrato style of Carmen Lombardo, and the two of them once sang a duet of Lombardo's signature song "Boo Hoo (You've Got Me Crying for You)" on The Tonight Show.

He was an avid fan of the opera and quite knowledgeable on the subject. He was a frequent guest on the Opera Quiz intermission features of the Saturday afternoon broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera.

Activism[link]

Randall was an advocate for the arts. During the summer of 1980, he served as the celebrity host of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra's concerts in Central Park, New York City.

He was also active with liberal political causes. During the U.S. presidential primaries in 1972, he appeared as the featured celebrity at numerous fundraising house-parties for Democratic candidate George McGovern.^[10]

Personal life[link]

Randall's headstone in Westchester Hills Cemetery

Randall was married to Florence Gibbs from 1942 until her death from cancer in 1992. The following year, he said, "I wish I believed I'd see my parents again, see my wife again. But I know it's not going to happen."^[11] He remarried on November 17, 1995, to Heather Harlan, an intern in one of his theatrical programs. At the time, Tony was 75, Heather 25. The couple subsequently had two children, Julia Laurette Randall (b. 1997) and Jefferson Salvini Randall (b. 1998), and they remained married until his death in 2004.

In his book Which Reminds Me, he proclaimed that any publicity an actor generates should be about his work, not himself. "The public knows only one thing about me: I don't smoke", he proclaimed. But by 1995, he revised his opinion, and made his engagement and marriage to Harlan, and subsequent fatherhood, quite public. For the most part, the media treated the marriage in a light-hearted spirit, but when the two became parents, not everyone was convinced the couple was completely forthright regarding how the babies were conceived.^[12]

Death[link]

Randall died in his sleep on May 17, 2004, at NYU Medical Center of complications from pneumonia he contracted following bypass surgery in December 2003. He is interred at the Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.^[1][2]

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Randall was nominated for five Golden Globe awards and two Emmy Awards, winning one Emmy in 1975 for his work on the sitcom The Odd Couple. In 1993, he received The Hundred Year Association of New York's Gold Medal Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the City of New York." Pace University granted him an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 2003.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Memoirs: Which Reminds Me by Tony Randall and Michael Mindlin. (New York: Delacorte Press, 1989), ISBN 0-385-29785-8

External links[link]

	United States Army portal
	Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tony Randall

• Tony Randall at Find a Grave
• Tony Randall at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tony Randall at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Tony Randall at the Internet Movie Database
• Archive of American Television Interview with Tony Randall April 28, 1998
• Pace University's tribute to Tony Randall
• Tony Randall interview: Performance Working in the Theatre CUNY-TV video by the American Theatre Wing, September 1989
• Jack Klugman & Tony Randall-Infopage
• Unofficial Odd Couple TV Show Website