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Buck Henry, the comic writer turned actor, has passed away from a heart attack, it has been announced. He got his start in the industry as a writer, and in the 1960s his biggest impact on television came with classic spy spoof Get Smart, which he created with Mel Brooks, but he had further ambitions and also wrote The Graduate, another classic that signalled a changing of the guard in pop culture like few others.
An adaptation of Terry Southern's Candy flopped, as did one of Joseph Heller's Catch-22, but The Owl and the Pussycat and (especially) What's Up Doc? were successes for Barbra Streisand. While The Day of the Dolphin baffled most, he also appeared in Milos Forman's cult satire Taking Off and arch-prankster Alan Abel's Is There Sex After Death?, exhibiting Henry's utter fearlessness in going for a laugh.
This was also obvious from his Saturday Night Live hosting gigs, where he specifically asked for the edgiest material other hosts had turned down. If his Star Trek spoof series Quark flopped, he directed Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty, a huge hit, and penned one of Nicole Kidman's breakthrough roles in To Die For; other film appearances included Nicolas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, Joan Tewkesbury's Old Boyfriends, John Cassavetes' Gloria, Paul Bartel's Eating Raoul, Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life, Robert Altman's Short Cuts, Grumpy Old Men and many, many TV guest star spots, ranging from Falcon Crest to 30 Rock. One of the great, influential comic talents from the United States. |
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