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Tony Randall Remebered
Aired May 18, 2004 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: A quick check of the headlines right now. In Gaza, a massive Israeli incursion today. Air strikes and at least 100 tanks and bulldozers rolled into Rafah, which Israeli commanders call the gateway of terrorism. Palestinian sources say 19 Palestinians were killed, two of them children. At least 35 were wounded.
Arizona firefighters say they've gotten the upper hand on the Diamond Fire, which broke out Sunday. That fire is about 65 percent contained and is no longer a threat to the tiny community of Sunflower, Arizona. Firefighters hope to have the fire fully contained by tomorrow morning.
And Martha Stewart's TV show is moving to the back burner. The production company on "Martha Stewart Living" says the series will go on hiatus at the end of the season as its star awaits a possible prison sentence. Stewart was convicted in March for lying to investigators probing the ImClone stock scandal. She'll be sentenced June 17 and face 10 to 16 months in prison.
Leonard Rosenberg was a teenager in Tulsa, Oklahoma when he saw a touring ballet production of "Swan Lake." And Tony Randall was born. Today, we are fondly remembering the proper and persnickety comic and dramatic actor who died last night at the age of 84.
Randall made his name over decades of work in theater, feature films and television. But as you know him best, or you might know him best as Felix. And you're not alone. Randall spent five happy years in the TV version of "The Odd Couple." And many years later he and Jack Klugman reminisced with Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Tony, why do you like acting in you said you loved it. Why?
TONY RANDALL, ACTOR: I don't know why. I've always just loved it more than anything. From the time I was 12 years old I knew I was going to be an actor. That was it.
KING: So when you would in theater or whatever, you would look forward to 8:00?
RANDALL: I still do.
KING: That curtain going up, you want to go out? RANDALL: I do, yes.
KING: And you're being someone else and loving it.
RANDALL: Yes.
KING: Can you explain that?
RANDALL: No.
KING: No.
(LAUGHTER)
RANDALL: I can't.
KING: I mean, it's childlike in a sense.
RANDALL: Oh, of course it is, yes. And maybe it's slightly neurotic and -- the need for attention and love and so forth. But that's not it with me. I don't think.
You become -- you become obsessed with the craft, and it's all you think about.
And you read every book that's ever been written on it and you study it and study it -- it's your life.
KING: Jack, does it obsess you? Oh, you've got horse racing, so it can't obsess you?
JACK KLUGMAN, ACTOR: No, no, no. Acting is my best friend, it always has been. It got me out of where I was living, made me -- got me an education. I met wonderful people, I got respect, I got identity.
And as long as I worked toward the best that I could do, it always was loyal to me. It's only when you chicken out -- I mean, I've been a coward in probably most other things in my life, but not in acting. When somebody challenged me, I blow the job rather than compromise, you know, without knowing it. So, no, I loved it, it's my best friend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Randall is survived by his wife, 34-year-old Heather Harlan, and their two children, 7-year-old Julia and 5-year-old Jefferson.
An older parent himself, Larry asked him about the family in that March 2001 interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Tony, your children are like mine, they're 14 months apart. RANDALL: That's right.
KING: How old, now?
RANDALL: My little girl will be four in April, and my little boy will be three in June.
KING: And how old are you?
RANDALL: I'm glad you asked.
KING: No, come on, it's an amazing story.
RANDALL: I'm 81. Oh, my word did I say it.
KING: And you never had children?
RANDALL: Never before, no.
KING: OK, what is it like, before we move to "The Odd Couple," what is it like -- and I think we have some film you took at home last night -- what is it like, at 81. I'm 67 and I've got a 2-year-old and a 10-month-old. You're 81.
RANDALL: Nothing in life is the equal of it. And it's as if this is what I was waiting for all my life.
KING: Are you sprightly? Can you stay with them?
RANDALL: Oh, yeah.
KING: There they are. Tell us who this is.
RANDALL: The little girl is playing the violin. The little boy is trying to play his guitar, but he plays is backwards. I took this in the kitchen last night.
KING: Are they both daddy people?
RANDALL: Oh, yes, oh, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Tonight, Mrs. Tony Randall, Heather Harlan, will be Larry's guest at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
News this hour. Our Elizabeth Cohen has reassuring news for parents concerned about their children, vaccines and autism.
If you've been avoiding french fries while watching your waistline, sit down and try to breathe normally before our biz report.
And finally Krispy Kreme doughnut in the U.K. Now the glazed originals are easier to get than ever. LIVE FROM... is obsessed with comfort food after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Within the past hour, a highly anticipated medical report has been released that could end the controversy once and for all on whether vaccines can cause autism. Here with us is our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
So, what is it saying?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the report says actually that there is no link between autism and childhood vaccine. Parent of autistic children have been saying for many years now that they believe that there is a link between autism and childhood vaccines. This is a report from the Institutes of Medicine, a private group that was hired by the government to investigate this issue. They spent several years on it, and they found that there was no link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism and also no link between thimerosal and autism. Thimerosal is a preservative that used to be used in vaccines, and many people had the theory that perhaps that is what was causing autism, and the Institute of Medicine said no, and that there have been five studies, and even more over the years that say that there just isn't that link.
NGUYEN: What about parents, because they were thinking there was a link. Is this going to be enough to satisfy them?
COHEN: Probably not. We've already heard from some of these parent's groups, that have said that they think that there is a link between vaccines and autism, and it probably won't satisfy them, because they say there's been a rise in autism over the years. There's been an increase in the number of vaccines that children get, and they say that you put that together and there has to be a relationship.
NGUYEN: Yes, this new report says there's no link. So where did this idea come from?
COHEN: There was an article in 1998 in a British journal called "The Lancet," in a medical journal called "The Lancet," and that article suggested that is a link between the vaccines and autism. In other words, that maybe the vaccines cause autism, and the author of that report, and many parents really took that up as really as a cause, as a piece of science.
Well, it's interesting, because just a few months ago, Betty, most of the authors of that report basically recanted and wrote in the journal, saying, well, we didn't really mean that there was a link vaccines and autism. So this is a very sort of long and twisted history, but that's how it started basically, is in that 1998 article.
NGUYEN: Twisted indeed. All right, medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. Are you the kind of person who always remembered a face, but never a name? The memory is one of the greatest mysteries of the brain.
Our Anderson Cooper takes a look at how you can boost your brainpower in the first part of his series "Unlocking the Secrets of the Brain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've always had a poor memory. Especially like short-term memory. I've always been a little bit ditsy.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Katsoff (ph) calls himself a real-life absent minded professor. He's certainly not the only one. Millions of Americans struggle with their remembering.
DR. GARY SMALL, UCLA NEUROPSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE: The biggest complaint people have about memory is names and faces.
COOPER: Experts say memory lapses can be worked out by memory training.
SMALL: The idea is, use it or lose it. Work out your brain cells so they can stay active and healthy.
COOPER: Dr. Small says we need remember just three words. Look, snap, connect.
Look at a situation. Take a mental snapshot, observing details. Then connect those details to something in your life.
But how does memory work? Why do we remember certain things in vivid detail? A first kiss? The death of a loved one? Where we were during important moments in history. But forget other things.
It turns out emotional events are more easily converted into long-term memory. Senses help lock in and later trigger memories. Even those long forgotten. This is now the cornerstone of new treatments in Alzheimer's care. The smell of fresh-baked cookies, a fireplace, the sound of music.
JOHN ZEISEL: People with Alzheimer's, even in the last stage of the disease will tap their foot to music. Music is one of those profound memories that people understand almost forever.
COOPER: Now there's intriguing research on ways to stave off age-related memory loss, by building new nerve connections in the brain. Playing a musical instrument, or learning a foreign language stimulate unused parts of the brain. For those less ambitious, there are other common sense ways to boost memory. Getting a good night's sleep. Reducing stress. Eating a healthy diet, including foods rich in antioxidants. And exercising your body and of course, your brain.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Tonight on "AC 360," part two of the series, Anderson takes a look at the minds of serial killers. "The Killer Mind," that is tonight at 7:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right, here's one for you, a jaguar, a severed finger and a silent victim. It all made zoo officials say, what the? And then they said, don't come back. It seems a groundskeeper spotted a bleeding visitor running into the restroom the other day and tried to ask whether he needed help. The man fled. At which point, someone spotted the finger outside the jaguar cage. Here's where it gets weird. Tracked down through his Zoo Pass, the man denied over the phone that he was missing any fingers. Then they took the print off the digit they had and found otherwise. Officials can't say why the man wouldn't point one of his other fingers at the cat that mauled him, but he's banned for life from the Rio Grande Zoo regardless.
Krispy Kreme has caught on in the U.K. The donut king opened its first drive-thru in London today. Krispy Kreme's Signature hot glaze doughnuts became quite a sensation when it opened its first location at upscale Harrods, of all places. The very first person in line this morning won free doughnuts for a year. Luck person.
(BUSINESS UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: The arraignments of three American soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners have been moved from Thursday to tomorrow. One person at the center of the scandal is Specialist Charles Graner, a man who has had his share of run-ins with the law.
CNN's Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A picture is now emerging of the man at the center of the Iraqi Prison abuse photos. Specialist Charles Graner is a man who's ex-wife has accused him of violent abuse. In 2001, she complained, he grabbed me by the hair, pushed me down, dragged me, and started banging the left side of my head against the floor. In all, she filed three complaints against him. Each time, a judge issued a restraining order against Graner, who is barred from going anywhere near his ex-wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he still loved her, and it was upsetting to him, but I think you just got to have your life go on.
CHO: Tom Zobata (ph) has known Graner for years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my friend in the picture, and become more the focal point because they showed that picture over and over and over and over. CHO: Graner lives in a small Pennsylvania community near Pittsburgh, in a home with a flag in the window, and a Bible verse painted on stone just outside. He worked as a prison guard in a nearby maximum security lockup. According to court records in June 1998, one inmate accused Graner and another guard of putting a razor blade in his food. Later, the inmate said, Graner grabbed a baton and began beating his arm. The allegations were never substantiated. A judge later dismissed the suit.
In the Pittsburgh suburb where Graner grew up, a high school classmate who hasn't seen him in years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hate to think that this would be his true personality.
CHO (on camera): Graner will be arraigned in Baghdad this week when he comes home. The two children, and depending on the outcome of the court-martial, his job at the prison will be waiting for him.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 18, 2004 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: A quick check of the headlines right now. In Gaza, a massive Israeli incursion today. Air strikes and at least 100 tanks and bulldozers rolled into Rafah, which Israeli commanders call the gateway of terrorism. Palestinian sources say 19 Palestinians were killed, two of them children. At least 35 were wounded.
Arizona firefighters say they've gotten the upper hand on the Diamond Fire, which broke out Sunday. That fire is about 65 percent contained and is no longer a threat to the tiny community of Sunflower, Arizona. Firefighters hope to have the fire fully contained by tomorrow morning.
And Martha Stewart's TV show is moving to the back burner. The production company on "Martha Stewart Living" says the series will go on hiatus at the end of the season as its star awaits a possible prison sentence. Stewart was convicted in March for lying to investigators probing the ImClone stock scandal. She'll be sentenced June 17 and face 10 to 16 months in prison.
Leonard Rosenberg was a teenager in Tulsa, Oklahoma when he saw a touring ballet production of "Swan Lake." And Tony Randall was born. Today, we are fondly remembering the proper and persnickety comic and dramatic actor who died last night at the age of 84.
Randall made his name over decades of work in theater, feature films and television. But as you know him best, or you might know him best as Felix. And you're not alone. Randall spent five happy years in the TV version of "The Odd Couple." And many years later he and Jack Klugman reminisced with Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Tony, why do you like acting in you said you loved it. Why?
TONY RANDALL, ACTOR: I don't know why. I've always just loved it more than anything. From the time I was 12 years old I knew I was going to be an actor. That was it.
KING: So when you would in theater or whatever, you would look forward to 8:00?
RANDALL: I still do.
KING: That curtain going up, you want to go out? RANDALL: I do, yes.
KING: And you're being someone else and loving it.
RANDALL: Yes.
KING: Can you explain that?
RANDALL: No.
KING: No.
(LAUGHTER)
RANDALL: I can't.
KING: I mean, it's childlike in a sense.
RANDALL: Oh, of course it is, yes. And maybe it's slightly neurotic and -- the need for attention and love and so forth. But that's not it with me. I don't think.
You become -- you become obsessed with the craft, and it's all you think about.
And you read every book that's ever been written on it and you study it and study it -- it's your life.
KING: Jack, does it obsess you? Oh, you've got horse racing, so it can't obsess you?
JACK KLUGMAN, ACTOR: No, no, no. Acting is my best friend, it always has been. It got me out of where I was living, made me -- got me an education. I met wonderful people, I got respect, I got identity.
And as long as I worked toward the best that I could do, it always was loyal to me. It's only when you chicken out -- I mean, I've been a coward in probably most other things in my life, but not in acting. When somebody challenged me, I blow the job rather than compromise, you know, without knowing it. So, no, I loved it, it's my best friend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Randall is survived by his wife, 34-year-old Heather Harlan, and their two children, 7-year-old Julia and 5-year-old Jefferson.
An older parent himself, Larry asked him about the family in that March 2001 interview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Tony, your children are like mine, they're 14 months apart. RANDALL: That's right.
KING: How old, now?
RANDALL: My little girl will be four in April, and my little boy will be three in June.
KING: And how old are you?
RANDALL: I'm glad you asked.
KING: No, come on, it's an amazing story.
RANDALL: I'm 81. Oh, my word did I say it.
KING: And you never had children?
RANDALL: Never before, no.
KING: OK, what is it like, before we move to "The Odd Couple," what is it like -- and I think we have some film you took at home last night -- what is it like, at 81. I'm 67 and I've got a 2-year-old and a 10-month-old. You're 81.
RANDALL: Nothing in life is the equal of it. And it's as if this is what I was waiting for all my life.
KING: Are you sprightly? Can you stay with them?
RANDALL: Oh, yeah.
KING: There they are. Tell us who this is.
RANDALL: The little girl is playing the violin. The little boy is trying to play his guitar, but he plays is backwards. I took this in the kitchen last night.
KING: Are they both daddy people?
RANDALL: Oh, yes, oh, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Tonight, Mrs. Tony Randall, Heather Harlan, will be Larry's guest at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific right here on CNN.
News this hour. Our Elizabeth Cohen has reassuring news for parents concerned about their children, vaccines and autism.
If you've been avoiding french fries while watching your waistline, sit down and try to breathe normally before our biz report.
And finally Krispy Kreme doughnut in the U.K. Now the glazed originals are easier to get than ever. LIVE FROM... is obsessed with comfort food after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Within the past hour, a highly anticipated medical report has been released that could end the controversy once and for all on whether vaccines can cause autism. Here with us is our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen.
So, what is it saying?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the report says actually that there is no link between autism and childhood vaccine. Parent of autistic children have been saying for many years now that they believe that there is a link between autism and childhood vaccines. This is a report from the Institutes of Medicine, a private group that was hired by the government to investigate this issue. They spent several years on it, and they found that there was no link between the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and autism and also no link between thimerosal and autism. Thimerosal is a preservative that used to be used in vaccines, and many people had the theory that perhaps that is what was causing autism, and the Institute of Medicine said no, and that there have been five studies, and even more over the years that say that there just isn't that link.
NGUYEN: What about parents, because they were thinking there was a link. Is this going to be enough to satisfy them?
COHEN: Probably not. We've already heard from some of these parent's groups, that have said that they think that there is a link between vaccines and autism, and it probably won't satisfy them, because they say there's been a rise in autism over the years. There's been an increase in the number of vaccines that children get, and they say that you put that together and there has to be a relationship.
NGUYEN: Yes, this new report says there's no link. So where did this idea come from?
COHEN: There was an article in 1998 in a British journal called "The Lancet," in a medical journal called "The Lancet," and that article suggested that is a link between the vaccines and autism. In other words, that maybe the vaccines cause autism, and the author of that report, and many parents really took that up as really as a cause, as a piece of science.
Well, it's interesting, because just a few months ago, Betty, most of the authors of that report basically recanted and wrote in the journal, saying, well, we didn't really mean that there was a link vaccines and autism. So this is a very sort of long and twisted history, but that's how it started basically, is in that 1998 article.
NGUYEN: Twisted indeed. All right, medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. Are you the kind of person who always remembered a face, but never a name? The memory is one of the greatest mysteries of the brain.
Our Anderson Cooper takes a look at how you can boost your brainpower in the first part of his series "Unlocking the Secrets of the Brain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've always had a poor memory. Especially like short-term memory. I've always been a little bit ditsy.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joe Katsoff (ph) calls himself a real-life absent minded professor. He's certainly not the only one. Millions of Americans struggle with their remembering.
DR. GARY SMALL, UCLA NEUROPSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE: The biggest complaint people have about memory is names and faces.
COOPER: Experts say memory lapses can be worked out by memory training.
SMALL: The idea is, use it or lose it. Work out your brain cells so they can stay active and healthy.
COOPER: Dr. Small says we need remember just three words. Look, snap, connect.
Look at a situation. Take a mental snapshot, observing details. Then connect those details to something in your life.
But how does memory work? Why do we remember certain things in vivid detail? A first kiss? The death of a loved one? Where we were during important moments in history. But forget other things.
It turns out emotional events are more easily converted into long-term memory. Senses help lock in and later trigger memories. Even those long forgotten. This is now the cornerstone of new treatments in Alzheimer's care. The smell of fresh-baked cookies, a fireplace, the sound of music.
JOHN ZEISEL: People with Alzheimer's, even in the last stage of the disease will tap their foot to music. Music is one of those profound memories that people understand almost forever.
COOPER: Now there's intriguing research on ways to stave off age-related memory loss, by building new nerve connections in the brain. Playing a musical instrument, or learning a foreign language stimulate unused parts of the brain. For those less ambitious, there are other common sense ways to boost memory. Getting a good night's sleep. Reducing stress. Eating a healthy diet, including foods rich in antioxidants. And exercising your body and of course, your brain.
Anderson Cooper, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Tonight on "AC 360," part two of the series, Anderson takes a look at the minds of serial killers. "The Killer Mind," that is tonight at 7:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right, here's one for you, a jaguar, a severed finger and a silent victim. It all made zoo officials say, what the? And then they said, don't come back. It seems a groundskeeper spotted a bleeding visitor running into the restroom the other day and tried to ask whether he needed help. The man fled. At which point, someone spotted the finger outside the jaguar cage. Here's where it gets weird. Tracked down through his Zoo Pass, the man denied over the phone that he was missing any fingers. Then they took the print off the digit they had and found otherwise. Officials can't say why the man wouldn't point one of his other fingers at the cat that mauled him, but he's banned for life from the Rio Grande Zoo regardless.
Krispy Kreme has caught on in the U.K. The donut king opened its first drive-thru in London today. Krispy Kreme's Signature hot glaze doughnuts became quite a sensation when it opened its first location at upscale Harrods, of all places. The very first person in line this morning won free doughnuts for a year. Luck person.
(BUSINESS UPDATE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: The arraignments of three American soldiers accused of abusing Iraqi prisoners have been moved from Thursday to tomorrow. One person at the center of the scandal is Specialist Charles Graner, a man who has had his share of run-ins with the law.
CNN's Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A picture is now emerging of the man at the center of the Iraqi Prison abuse photos. Specialist Charles Graner is a man who's ex-wife has accused him of violent abuse. In 2001, she complained, he grabbed me by the hair, pushed me down, dragged me, and started banging the left side of my head against the floor. In all, she filed three complaints against him. Each time, a judge issued a restraining order against Graner, who is barred from going anywhere near his ex-wife.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he still loved her, and it was upsetting to him, but I think you just got to have your life go on.
CHO: Tom Zobata (ph) has known Graner for years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my friend in the picture, and become more the focal point because they showed that picture over and over and over and over. CHO: Graner lives in a small Pennsylvania community near Pittsburgh, in a home with a flag in the window, and a Bible verse painted on stone just outside. He worked as a prison guard in a nearby maximum security lockup. According to court records in June 1998, one inmate accused Graner and another guard of putting a razor blade in his food. Later, the inmate said, Graner grabbed a baton and began beating his arm. The allegations were never substantiated. A judge later dismissed the suit.
In the Pittsburgh suburb where Graner grew up, a high school classmate who hasn't seen him in years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hate to think that this would be his true personality.
CHO (on camera): Graner will be arraigned in Baghdad this week when he comes home. The two children, and depending on the outcome of the court-martial, his job at the prison will be waiting for him.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
