Jack Klugman is Best Known as Messy Oscar Madison

Every great television acting legend has at least two highly successful television shows. Jack Klugman has done just that starring in "The Odd Couple" and "Quincy, M.E.".

Klugman was born April 27, 1922 in Philadelphia, PA. His family was very poor and his childhood was difficult. Klugman served in the army before pursuing his acting career.

Some of his earliest acting experiences were in "The Twilight Zone". He was in four episodes. His first movie performance was in "12 Angry Men" in which he played juror #5.

Klugman won a Tony Award in 1960 for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Gypsy".

"In 1964, Klugman won the first of his Emmy awards for his performance in "Blacklist," an episode of the TV series The Defenders; that same year, he starred in his first sitcom, the 13-week wonder Harris Against the World," according to www.answers.com.

From 1970-75 he played Oscar Madison, a sloppy divorced sports writer living with a neat sensitive fellow divorcee Felix Unger played by Tony Randall in "The Odd Couple".

As Madison, Klugman grabbed my heart as he was also goofy and fun loving. In one episode he tells Felix he wants to race a greyhound they own in a race because he always wanted to own a racing horse and knew he could never afford it. Madison won the racing dog in a poker game and Unger treats it like a pet. I've always felt the same as Madison and never forget the episode. Someday, maybe I will own a greyhound and then keep him as my pet when his career is over. It seems we all have a bit of Madison and Unger in us.

In his real life Klugman did own racing horses. One of his horses, Jaklin Klugman raced in the Kentucky Derby finishing third. The horse was voted the 1980 California Horse of the Year after winning the 1980 California Derby and Jerome Handicap.

Klugman also starred in the original Broadway production of "The Odd Couple" and won two Emmy Awards for the T.V. version of "The Odd Couple".

After the series ended it only took a year for Klugman to get his next role in 1976 in "Quincy M.E." He played Dr. R Quincy, a medical examiner. That show is said to have led the way to shows today like "CSI". We didn't see the blood and gore but the medical examiner always got the bad guy.

According to www.imdb.com, Klugman also wrote 4 episodes of the show.

Once the show was canceled, Klugman starred in the Broadway play "I'm Not Rappaport" and co-starred with John Stamos in the 1986 sitcom "You Again?".

He was a heavy smoker, however, and had oral cancer since 1974. In 1989 he had to have his right vocal chord removed, due to the cancer, and that left his speech impaired, according to www.oralcancerfoundation.org.

He did later appear on several game shows including the very first "Match Game" and the United Kingdom Game Show "Going for Gold".

In all, he was involved in 95 different film productions and 55 specials and TV game shows.

In 2005, Klugman wrote "Tony And Me: A Story of Friendship", a book about his long time friendship with his "Odd Couple" co-star Tony Randall.

Klugman married Brett Somers of "Match Game" fame in 1953. It was Klugman who insisted "Match Game" producers allow Somers a spot on the show. She fit in so well, producers made her a regular. They had two children Adam and David. Klugman and Somers never divorced but separated in 1974. He began living with Peggy Crosby, ex-wife of Bing Crosby, in 1988. Somers died in 2007 and he and Crosby soon married in 2008.

Klugman has certainly done a lot in his career but will probably be most remembered as a gruff, messy, gambling Oscar Madison.

Source: www.imdb.com, www.oralcancerfoundation.org , www.answers.com