Obit: Buck Henry (1930-2020)

Subject: Obit: Buck Henry
From: robomatic
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 10:59 AM

Plastics!

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Henry (1930-2020)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 11:44 AM

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/09/794808791/buck-henry

Buck Henry, who co-wrote the screenplay for the classic 1967 film The Graduate, co-directed 1978's Heaven Can Wait, and made regular appearances as a guest host on Saturday Night Live in the show's early years, has died. He was 89.

Henry died Wednesday in Los Angeles following a heart attack. Reports of his death were confirmed to NPR by a longtime friend.

The son of a silent film star, Henry also co-created the TV show Get Smart with Mel Brooks. Henry appeared on dozens of television shows, including Saturday Night Live during the show's early days. Henry and Calder Willingham co-wrote the screenplay for the 1967 film The Graduate. The movie is based on the novel by Charles Webb and stars Anne Bancroft as a bored housewife who seduces a much younger paramour, Benjamin Braddock, played by Dustin Hoffman.

The film, in which Henry made a cameo as a hotel clerk, came to symbolize the angst of a generation desperate to escape the stultifying materialism of their parents.

In a 1997 interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, Henry said Hoffman did not fit the image of the character as originally written by Webb. But he said in Hoffman's screen test "the soul was there" and the actor "wiped everyone else out."

Henry explained that he hesitated to include one of the film's most memorable exchanges, between Braddock and one of his father's friends, Mr. McGuire, who tries to give the young man some business advice: "I've just want to say one word to you. Just one word," McGuire says to a perplexed Braddock, "Plastics."

Henry told Gross he wondered if the line would come off as old-fashioned or trite. "It was sort of a '50s, '60s way of complaining about society's falseness," he said. "But I couldn't ever think of anything that was as interesting or more interesting or anything that wasn't a better word for them to say. 'Plastics' was such a good word."

The rest of the story is at the link above.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Henry (1930-2020)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 11:49 AM

This obituary answers the question I had when I saw the thread title - Buck Henry was an active musician through the years.

https://syncopatedtimes.com/remembering-buck-henrys-life-in-ragtime/

Remembering Buck Henry’s life in Ragtime
Larry Melton
January 10, 2020



When I read that Buck Henry died on January 8th, I remembered fondly the night we first met in Sedalia at a Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival. If you read Buck’s obituary, you will be nearly overwhelmed by his achievements as a movie and motion picture writer, actor and director. However, I knew him as an amateur ragtime musician and an avid fan of and ambassador for ragtime music.

I was sitting in the Matthewson Exhibition Center at a ragtime program, when a friend said, “There’s someone you should meet over here.” We walked over to another table in the dimly lit auditorium and I instantly recognized one of my favorite screen writers and early Saturday Night Live television personalities sitting there enjoying the program. Buck Henry graciously made room for us and I enjoyed one of the nicest evenings I ever spent in Sedalia.

Buck had been a ragtime “junkie” since he was in college and his longtime friendship with another ragtime enthusiast, actor George Segal only encouraged his interest. Segal and Henry even tried their hand at performing novelty ragtime together on occasion. No doubt their performances were inspired by Buck having seen Ian Whitcomb and Richard Zimmerman’s novelty numbers in Sedalia.

In 1992 Buck Henry sang “I’ll Stay Behind with the Girls” in Whitcomb’s, Lotusland, musical comedy. For many years Buck attended the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festivals and because of his notoriety and reputation as a raconteur, he was invited to emcee a concert 1993.

Many wondered why a Saturday Night Live guest and host would be in a Sedalia ragtime concert. That is, until they understood what an ambassador for the music Buck Henry was. To have someone of his fame promoting ragtime as the revival interest across the country was waning, was pure gold for all things syncopated.

In a published article, Buck recommended his ragtime “starter collection”. It provides a glimpse into his personal ragtime preferences: “It included Richard Zimmerman’s “Complete Works of Scott Joplin;” “Fingerbreaker,” by Morton Gunnar Larsen; “Geraldine,” by Mimi Blais; “The Best of New Orleans Piano” album by David Thomas Roberts; “Ragtime Bigtime,” by Glenn Jenks; and “Bucktown in the Nineties,” by Frank French.

I’m grateful to have known him briefly and for all the talented ways he entertained us. I hope they play Joplin’s “Solace” (1909) for him at his Memorial Service and then a rollicking novelty syncopation.

I posted the entire set of remarks here because I don't know if the source provides a durable link. The links you'll find on the site are all to other articles on the site.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Henry (1930-2020)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 12:05 PM

Musical humor (Nabors trying not to laugh)

Someone compiled Henry's visits to the David Letterman show.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Henry (1930-2020)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Jan 20 - 12:46 PM

Totally thought Henry Gibson this whole time.