Tony Randall

Tony Randall Honored at College

Tells Graduates to Find Passion in their Work

Source:  Lynn Cowan, Daily Record

HACKETTSTOWN - Actor Tony Randall counseled the 175 graduates of Centenary College yesterday to support the theater, find professions they love, and grab their future degrees for free. "I never earned a degree," said the 77-year-old founder of the National Actors Theatre, who received an honorary doctorate at the college's   122nd   commencement.  "Imagine how pleasant it is to receive one for nothing."

Randall's   thirty-five  minute speech in the college's quad was a study in practical advice and wit, delivered on a sunny day with the slightest breeze drifting across the campus. The Emmy Award-winning actor, known by many for his role as Felix Unger on the 1970s sitcom "The Odd Couple," talked about his love of the theater and what it was like to grow up without any cultural activities in Tulsa, Okla.  "It was called a cultural Sahara by Time magazine," Randall said of his hometown. "Today, Tulsa has a symphony orchestra, an opera and two museums."

A similar cultural explosion occurred in towns across the country during Randall's lifetime, a phenomenon helped along by the National Endowment for the Arts and corporate sponsors, Randall said. 

During that same time period, Broadway theatrical productions shrank from 200 a year to the current crop of approximately 30 a year, he said. 

"By and large, people still think theater is show business, not art.  Art must be supported. But people believe you can make a fortune in theater. I once knew one man who did." the actor quipped. "We need to start supporting theater as an arts institution."  Randall formed his National Actors Theater in 1991 to help educate children and teens about theater and to create a year-round production company. Although the non-profit organization is involved with schools and other educational programs, it has only put on one production, “The Gin Game,” so far this year because of tight funds, he said. 

Students at the four-year liberal arts college have already been introduced to the concept of theatre as art, not show business.  The campus is the home of Centenary Performing Arts Guild, which includes the Centenary Stage Company, a professional equity theatre in residence. 

Randall avoided giving the traditional preferring to poke fun at his role as a commencement speaker. 

“I believe I’m expect to divulge the secrets of life.  Here is the first.  Beneath this robe, I am naked.”  He told the audience with a straight face. 

At another point in his speech, the tinkle of bells from a passing ice cream truck carried across the campus from a nearby street.  After pausing to let the bells die down, Randall told the group, “If any of you find buying ice cream more attractive than listening to me, we can take a break.” 

The one serious secret from his life that he passed on to the class of 1997 was to find passion in their work

“You must find-each and every one of you – something in life to do that you love, that you love blindly.  And you must work yourself to death at that,” he said to applause.