John Randolph (actor) - Career

Career

Randolph was the last blacklisted actor to regain employment in Hollywood films when director John Frankenheimer cast him in the lead role in Seconds in 1966. Randolph was in the original New York stage productions of The Sound of Music (as Von Trapp's butler, Franz), Paint Your Wagon, and The Visit.

He won the 1987 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in the Neil Simon play, Broadway Bound. He made his last Broadway appearance in 1991 in Prelude to a Kiss.

With numerous screen and television appearances in secondary roles, among which he played Donna Pescow's father in-law on the television series, Angie, his was a familiar face. He was often stopped on the street by people who asked if they knew him. He would reply, "Yes, I've been in your living room many times."

In the 1970s he made 3 appearances as Cornelius "Junior" Harrison, father of Emily Hartley in The Bob Newhart Show. In 1975, Randolph was cast as General Philip Blankenship in The New Original Wonder Woman.

In 1982, he appeared in a first season episode of Family Ties as Jake Keaton, Steven Keaton's father, who shared an adversarial relationship with his son before finally revealing during his latest visit that he was, in fact, dying. His death was dealt with off-screen and addressed during a final season flashback following Steven's heart attack. In between, Jake was seen one other time (played by Michael Alldredge) in a flashback to Steven's childhood while he is visiting back home following Jake's death. In 1989, he appeared in two episodes of the hit sitcom Roseanne as Roseanne and Jackie's father, Al Harris. As he only appeared in the first and second seasons, the character was only referred to over the course of the series (his character's extramarital affairs were introduced late in the series as a way of explaining Roseanne's parents' estrangement and his departure from the scene).

In 1990, he co-starred in the NBC comedy Grand.

He appeared in "The Handicap Spot", an early episode of the television sitcom Seinfeld as Frank Costanza, George Costanza's father. He was later replaced by Jerry Stiller. In 1995, the scenes with Randolph appeared were re-shot with Stiller. The re-shot version is shown in syndication in the United States. The original version, with Randolph, can be seen outside the U.S. and on DVD.

He also appeared in a Season 2 episode of Matlock as Sam Gerard, the head of a crime family in "The Investigation".

He costarred with Alec Guinness, Leo McKern, Jeanne Moreau and Lauren Bacall, in the BBC production of A Foreign Field (1993) as a World War II veteran returning to France to find the woman he fell in love with. Among his most famous film roles was Chief Sidney Green in Serpico (1973), directed by Sidney Lumet.He also played the father of Charlie Partana (played by Jack Nicholson) in Prizzi's Honor and Clark W. Griswold, Sr. in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (with Chevy Chase). One of his last film roles was as Tom Hanks's grandfather in You've Got Mail (1998).

On February 24, 2004, Randolph died of natural causes at age eighty-eight.