JACK KLUGMAN Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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JACK KLUGMAN

Name: Jack Klugman                                                                   
Birth name: Jacob Joachim Klugman                                                   
Born: 27 April 1922 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.                                 
                                                                                     
Jack Klugman (born April 27, 1922 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American     
television and film actor, known primarily for his roles in sitcoms, movies and     
television. He is best-known for his role as Tony Randall's sloppy roommate,         
Oscar Madison, in The Odd Couple in the 1970s, and for his starring role in         
Quincy, M.E., in the 1970s and 1980s. He attended Carnegie Mellon University and     
graduated in 1948.                                                                   
                                                                                     
Born as Jacob Joachim Klugman, Jack Klugman began acting after serving in the       
United States Army during World War II. A struggling actor in New York City,         
Klugman was a roommate of another starving actor, Charles Bronson, before the       
two became successful.                                                               
                                                                                     
Klugman starred in several classic films including 12 Angry Men (which he says       
is his favorite), Goodbye, Columbus, and Days of Wine and Roses. He also won an     
Emmy Award for his work on the television series The Defenders and appeared in       
four episodes of the acclaimed series The Twilight Zone (tied with Burgess           
Meredith for the most appearances by any actor on the series). Klugman says his     
greatest thrill was appearing with Humphrey Bogart and Henry Fonda in a 1954         
live television broadcast of The Petrified Forest.                                   
                                                                                     
He is best known for his starring roles in two popular television series of the     
1970s and early 1980s: The Odd Couple (1970–1975) and Quincy, M.E. (1976–1983). 
Jack also starred in the original Broadway production of The Odd Couple, before     
being replaced by Walter Matthau due to other commitments. He won two Emmy           
Awards for the T.V. version of The Odd Couple.