BUCK HENRY

(9 December 1930 - 8 January 2020)

The American actor and screenwriter Buck Henry, who has died from a heart attack at the age of 89, began writing for the Dartmouth College magazine alongside children’s author Dr Seuss, novelist Budd Schulberg and the playwright Frank D. Gilroy. An interest in acting at Harvard Military Academy led to work on Broadway. Later on he joined The Premise, an off-Broadway improv group, and he continued to write mainly comic material. In television he worked on Saturday Night Live, for the Steve Allen and Garry Moore shows, and Get Smart (with Mel Brooks). His entry into the cinema was the story for Theodore J. Flicker’s The Troublemaker (1964) in which Henry also acted. His first screenplay was The Graduate (1967, with an Oscar nomination), then came Candy, Catch-22, The Owl and the Pussycat and What’s Up Doc? (the last two with Barbra Streisand), The Day of the Dolphin with George C. Scott, First Family with Bob Newhart, which he also directed, Protocol with Goldie Hawn, To Die For with Nicole Kidman, Town and Country with Warren Beatty, The Humbling (aka The Last Act) with Al Pacino and Greta Gerwig, and a film of Get Smart with Steve Carell, to which there is a sequel on the way. Buck Henry often acted in his own screenplays, including The Graduate, Candy, Catch-22, The Owl and the Pussycat and The Day of the Dolphin. Other films he appeared in include Milos Forman’s Taking Off, John Cassavetes’ Gloria, Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, Heaven Can Wait (which he also co-directed with Warren Beatty), Paul Bartel’s Eating Raoul, The Player (as himself) and Short Cuts, both by Robert Altman, Gus Van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Grumpy Old Men with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and many more films and TV shows. He produced Captain Nice and Quark for television. Buck Henry was married to Irene Ramp and Sally Zuckerman. He has a single daughter.

MICHAEL DARVELL