Roy Gerber

Real life odd couple, from left, Roy Gerber and Danny Simon with playwright Neil Simon and TV odd couple Jack Klugman and Tony Randall (Photo courtesy Pam Gerber)

Inger with talent agent Roy Gerber

This is the obituary for Roy Gerber, the "original model" for Oscar in The Odd Couple.

This is a news story about Roy from his daughter's perspective.

Both are quick and interesting reads!

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Obituary:

In the early 1960s, Gerber and Weiss joined General Artists Corp., where they represented the Beatles, the Lovin' Spoonful, the Mamas and the Papas, Johnny Rivers, Richard Pryor, Tom Jones and others.

Gerber was newly separated from his first wife in the early 1960s when Simon's brother, comedy writer Danny Simon, who was also newly separated, moved into his West Hollywood home.

Bill Gerber said his father was just like Oscar in "The Odd Couple."

"He was sloppy, he was a womanizer, he was the life of the party," he said. And like Felix Unger, he said, "Danny was literally anal-retentive, he did the cooking, the cleaning."

One night the two men invited friends over for dinner, an occasion for which Simon cooked a pot roast.

"My dad was late, and it got dry, and Danny never forgave him," Bill Gerber said.

The next day, as the story goes, Gerber told Simon: "Sweetheart, that was a lovely dinner last night. What are we going to have tonight?"

To which Simon replied: "What do you mean, cook you dinner? You never take me out to dinner. You never bring me flowers."

Bill Gerber said Walter Matthau, who played Oscar on Broadway and in the 1968 movie version of "The Odd Couple," later told him that in playing the role, "I just did Roy, and it worked out great."

Although Danny Simon originally planned to write a stage comedy about two divorced men who move in together, he stalled after 14 pages.

He finally passed the idea to brother Neil, who thought it was a great idea for a play.

"The Odd Couple," which opened on Broadway in 1965, won four Tony Awards, including one for Neil Simon as best author.

In the front of the original published version of the play, Bill Gerber noted, "Neil said, 'Thank you Roy and Danny for the use of your lives.' "

News Story:

“He went from one dysfunctional marriage to another,” Pam said of her father’s new living arrangement.

She said the two men moved in together partly out of economic necessity, but also because neither man liked being alone.

Despite the five-year run of the 1970-75 version of the TV show, which starred Jack Klugman and Tony Randall, Pam said her father and Simon only lived together about two years.

Of all the actors who’ve portrayed Roy, Pam said Walter Matthau was the one most like him. Once, when asked how he created his character, Matthau said, “I just did Roy, and it worked out great.”

Pam said Klugman, who not only starred in the original TV show but also replaced Matthau in the original Broadway run of the show, did a good job as well.

Along the way, other actors — including Craig Ferguson, Eugene Levy, Nathan Lane and even Rita Moreno, who starred in a female version — portrayed Pam’s father.

But the worst portrayal she’s seen, she said, comes from Matthew Perry, the current CBS Oscar Madison. “He’s too angry,” Pam said, recalling her father as always being the life of the party, always doing “shtick.”

Beginning with the first TV version starring Randall as Felix, the character based on Danny Simon, Felix started to become prissy. But Pam said Simon wasn’t prissy, just anal retentive.

She said when the two golfed, Danny would take out a tape measure to see which ball was inches closer to the hole to determine who putted first.
For two men with such high handicaps, Pam said, that hardly made a difference.

Danny was a good homemaker, with skills in chores such as cooking. Pam said the spaghetti scene in the play where Felix throws the pasta against the wall actually happened.

In her father’s obituary, Pam’s brother Bill told a story about how, soon after moving in together, the two men invited friends over for dinner. Danny made a pot roast.

“My dad was late, and it got dry and Danny never forgave him,” Bill Gerber said.

The next day, Roy asked Danny what he was making for dinner that night. Simon replied, “What do you mean, cook you dinner? You never take me out to dinner. You never bring me flowers.”

But despite the way the character of Felix is being played as probably gay in the current CBS reboot of the show and even the way Randall portrayed him, Pam described both men as womanizers.

She said her father was somewhat messy, but it was more a matter of collecting things. She called it “clean clutter.”

“He had snow globes — from every city,” she said. “Hats — dozens of them. Canes.”

Pam said there was paper everywhere, but not half eaten sandwiches; he wasn’t dirty. “He knew where everything was,” she said.

Danny, who was a TV writer, began writing a play about himself and his roommate Roy. But he never got past 14 pages and instead turned the idea over to his brother, who had already had a few hits on Broadway. Neil Simon won his first Tony Award for The Odd Couple, and it was that play that established his career.