Buck Henry

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Buck Henry (1978)

Buck Henry (* 9. December 1930 in New York City , New York as Henry Zuckerman , † 8. January 2020 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor , director and screenwriter .

Life

Buck Henry was born in New York in 1930 to actress Ruth Taylor . He began working as a writer while studying at Dartmouth College . At the beginning of the 1960s he acted as a comedian in several shows on American television.

As a screenwriter, he made his breakthrough with the successful television series Mini-Max ( Get Smart , 1965-1970), a parody of agent series and films that he created together with Mel Brooks . Henry's scripts were mainly characterized by dry and satirical humor. Henry achieved his greatest success with a film script in 1967 with the influential feature film The Graduation , for which director Mike Nichols received the Oscar and Henry himself was nominated for this award in the category of best script . In The Maturity Exam , Henry was also seen in the supporting role of the hotel receptionist, in which Dustin Hoffman's main character meets Mrs. Robinson . Henry also wrote the scripts for other New Hollywood films , such as Mike Nichols 'critically ill black comedy Catch-22 (1970, based on Joseph Heller's novel) and Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy Is' was, Doc? (1972). In the 1970s, the New York Times described him in a portrait as “America's most sought-after screenwriter”. One of his last works as a writer was the 2014 film The Final Act, starring Al Pacino .

Henry took on minor roles as an actor himself, often in films and television series, for which he had previously written the script. Between 1976 and 1980 he hosted the American television show Saturday Night Live ten times , during which time he hosted the season finale every year. As a performer, he mostly embodied comedic characters and was seen in guest roles in series such as Murphy Brown , Will & Grace , 30 Rock and Hot in Cleveland until the 2010s . He appeared as a patent attorney in Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell From Heaven (1976) alongside David Bowie and played a humorless debt collector in the comedy A Crazy Couple (1993) opposite Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon .

In the late 1970s, Henry also tried his hand at film directing : in 1978 he co-directed the comedy Heaven shall wait with Warren Beatty , a remake of the film Vacation from Heaven , for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Director . His second film as a director was the 1980 comedy Ene Mene Mu and President Are You , for which he also wrote the script. However, the film was not a success with either critics or audiences, and Henry did not direct any other feature films.

Buck Henry died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in January 2020 at the age of 89, according to his wife Irene . The cause of death was a heart attack.

Filmography (selection)

actor

Director

Screenwriter

Awards

  • 1967: Emmy for the screenplay of the television series Mini-Max
  • 1968: Oscar nomination for best screenplay for the film The Graduation
  • 1969: British Film Award for Best Screenplay for The Graduation Exam
  • 1973 Writers Guild of America Screenplay Award for Is' What, Doc?
  • 1979: Nominated for the Oscar for best director for Heaven Shall Wait

Web links

Commons : Buck Henry  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Buck Henry, Fun-Loving Screenwriter and Actor, Dies at 89. Retrieved January 9, 2020 .
  2. ^ Marcia Seligson: Hollywood's Hottest Writer— Buck Henry . In: The New York Times . July 19, 1970, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com [accessed January 9, 2020]).
  3. ^ 'SNL' 5-Timers Club: Most Frequent Hosts, From Alec Baldwin to Will Ferrell (Photos). In: TheWrap. December 17, 2019, accessed January 9, 2020 (American English).
  4. ↑ Buck Henry, Fun-Loving Screenwriter and Actor, Dies at 89. Retrieved January 9, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Henry, Buck
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zuckerman, Henry (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 2020
Place of death Los Angeles , California , United States