Buck Henry, R.I.P.

Very funny, very clever man, that Buck Henry. He was a screenwriter (The Graduate, Heaven Can Wait, Catch-22 and many others). He was a TV writer-creator (Get Smart, Captain Nice, Quark and others). He was a movie star. He was a wonderful talk show guest.

He was an important guest host during the first five years of Saturday Night Live…practically a member of the cast. One of the few times I got to speak at length with him was at a party one night at Leonard Maltin's house. There was another guest there who kept trying to get Buck to say that he was pissed because SNL seemed to have largely forgotten him once they could secure major motion picture stars to host. If Mr. Henry felt that way — and I don't know that he did or he didn't — he was not about to say it despite much hectoring from this other guest. I thought he was as good on that show as anyone who was ever good on that show.

He was also involved in something I vaguely remember from Jack Paar's prime-time show, the one he did after he left The Tonight Show. I'll let Wikipedia tell you about this aspect of Buck Henry's career…

From 1959 to 1962, as part of an elaborate hoax by comedian Alan Abel, [Henry] made public appearances as G. Clifford Prout, the quietly outraged president of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, who presented his point of view on talk shows. The character of Prout, who wished to clothe all animals in order to prevent their "indecency," was often presented as an eccentric but was otherwise taken seriously by the broadcasters who interviewed him. "Prout" received many letters of support from TV viewers, and even some unsolicited monetary donations, all of which were invariably returned, as neither Henry nor Abel (who had no intention of following through on the Society's stated aims) wanted to be accused of raising money fraudulently.

And am I the only one who remembers that once or twice in his later years, not long before he became seriously ill, Henry appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart? He was a correspondent dealing with issues that affected older folks.

That party at Leonard's was one of the few times I got to speak with the man. The others were all on Writers Guild picket lines where, when he wasn't speaking with admirers like me, he carried a picket sign in one hand while holding (and reading) an open book in the other. He was just as humorous and clever in person as he was when he was on with Johnny Carson or anyone like that.

I seem to recall one appearance when Johnny asked — and this was apparently not a question Buck knew was coming — how he wanted to die. Buck thought a moment then said, approximately, "I want to be unbelievably old. I want to be withered beyond belief. I want people to be saying, 'I thought he died years ago.' and to be amazed I'd lasted to that age." It was very, very funny.

I'm sorry he didn't get to go that way. But at least, he was always very, very funny.