Jack Klugman, the rubber-mugged character actor who leapt to television stardom in the 1970s as the slovenly sportswriter Oscar Madison on "The Odd Couple" and as the crusading forensic pathologist of "Quincy, M.E.," died on Monday at his home in the Woodland Hills section of Los Angeles. He was 90.
ABC, via Associated Press
Jack Klugman, right, and Tony Randall, the stars of the television series "The Odd Couple," in a 1972 publicity photo. More Photos »
His death was confirmed by his stepson Randy Wilson.
At one time a heavy smoker, Mr. Klugman had survived throat cancer, which was diagnosed in 1974. After a vocal cord was removed in 1989, his voice was reduced to a gravelly whisper.
Mr. Klugman, who grew up in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in Philadelphia, wasn't a subtle performer. His features were large and mobile; his voice was a deep, earnest, rough-hewed bleat. He was a no-baloney actor who conveyed straightforward, simply defined emotion, whether it was anger, heartbreak, lust or sympathy.
That forthrightness, in both comedy and drama, was the source of his power and his popularity. Never remote, never haughty, he was a regular guy, an audience-pleaser who proved well-suited for series television.
Mr. Klugman was already a decorated actor in 1970 when he began co-starring in "The Odd Couple," a sitcom adaptation of Neil Simon's hit play about two divorced men — friends with antagonistic temperaments — sharing a New York apartment. (A film version was released in 1968 with Walter Matthau reprising his Broadway performance as Oscar.)
Opposite Mr. Klugman's Oscar, an outgoing slob with a fondness for poker, cigars and sexy women, was Tony Randall as the pretentious fussbudget Felix Unger (spelled Ungar in the play and the film).
Mr. Klugman had played the part before: he had replaced Mr. Matthau for a few months on Broadway and had originated the role in London.
He also had more than 100 television credits behind him, including four episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and a 1964 episode of the legal drama "The Defenders," in which he delivered an Emmy Award-winning performance as a blacklisted actor.
In the movies he had been the nouveau-riche father of a Jewish American princess (Ali MacGraw) in "Goodbye, Columbus" (1969); a police colleague of Frank Sinatra's in "The Detective" (1968); Jack Lemmon's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor in "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962); and a murder-trial juror, alongside Henry Fonda, in "12 Angry Men" (1957).
In his solo moment in that film, his character, known only as Juror No. 5, recalls growing up in a tough neighborhood and instructs his fellow jurors in the proper use of a switchblade, a key element in their deliberations.
The "Odd Couple" series made Mr. Klugman a celebrity, but not immediately. During its five-year run, it never cracked the Top 20 in the Nielsen prime time ratings. Some critics said Mr. Klugman and Mr. Randall were always operating in the long shadows of the actors who came before them in the roles: besides Mr. Matthau as Oscar, Mr. Lemmon (film) and Art Carney (Broadway) had played Felix. But after "The Odd Couple" went into seemingly perpetual reruns, it earned a huge new following.
Mr. Klugman won two Emmys for the show and Mr. Randall one, and they eventually became the Oscar and Felix most identified with the roles.
"Quincy, M.E." was as sincere a drama as the "The Odd Couple" was a loopy comedy, and though it is not remembered as fondly, its initial run, from 1976 to 1983, was far more successful. The title character, the medical examiner for Los Angeles County (Quincy's first name was never revealed), was inspired by the real medical examiner at the time, Thomas T. Noguchi, known familiarly as "the coroner to the stars," who performed autopsies on Marilyn Monroe, Robert F. Kennedy, Natalie Wood and John Belushi, among others.
Quincy, a forensic pathologist, was as much a crusading detective as he was a doctor. The show often focused on social problems — abuse of the elderly by their children, for example. (Mr. Klugman occasionally wrote for the show and fought with network executives over its content.) And it could be preachy. But it achieved high ratings and even made an impact on health-care policy.
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