Buck Henry

Biography

Buck Henry (born Henry Zuckerman; New York, December 9, 1930 – Los Angeles, January 8, 2020) was an American actor, screenwriter and director whose career spanned film, television and the stage. His dry, understated comic style made him a recognizable figure in American comedy from the 1960s onward, both on screen and behind the camera.

The son of silent film actress Ruth Taylor and an Air Force general who later worked as a stockbroker, he studied at Choate and at Dartmouth College, where he wrote for the campus humor magazine and met Bob Rafelson. After serving in the Army in West Germany, he joined an improvisational group in Greenwich Village. From 1959 to 1962 he took part in a hoax devised by comedian Alan Abel, appearing on talk shows as G. Clifford Prout, the earnestly outraged head of a fictional society campaigning against the indecency of naked animals.

Television gave him his first large platform. He appeared on The New Steve Allen Show and on the American version of That Was the Week That Was, and with Mel Brooks he co-created the spy comedy Get Smart, which ran from 1965 to 1970 and won numerous Emmy Awards. His own projects, such as Captain Nice and Quark, had short runs. As a screenwriter he shared an Oscar nomination for The Graduate and wrote satirical and comic films such as Candy, Catch-22 and What's Up, Doc?.

He co-directed Heaven Can Wait (1978) with Warren Beatty, earning a nomination for Best Director, and worked as an actor in films including Gloria and Short Cuts. He also hosted Saturday Night Live ten times between 1976 and 1980, becoming its most frequent host of that period, and later guest-starred in series such as Will & Grace and 30 Rock.

His legacy rests largely on his writing and on his memorable supporting performances in comedy. He died in 2020 at the age of 89.

Key films

• The Graduate (1967): co-writer, and an actor in a small role as a hotel desk clerk.
• Heaven Can Wait (1978): co-director with Warren Beatty, and actor as an officious angel.
• Gloria (1980): supporting actor in John Cassavetes' drama.
• Catch-22 (1970): writer and actor as Lieutenant Korn.
• The Day of the Dolphin (1973): writer of this thriller directed by Mike Nichols.
• The Player (1992): cameo as himself in Robert Altman's satire.