American comedy legend Buck Henry has passed away following a heart attack, Deadline reports. The veteran writer had worked on Saturday Night Live and created the beloved spy comedy Get Smart. He was 89 years old. Henry also wrote The Graduate, widely regarded as one of the best feature-film comedies ever made. He also penned What’s Up, Doc?, a screwball comedy that starred Ryan O’Neal alongside Barbra Streisand. Henry also had a writing Emmy for Get Smart in 1967, and a pair of Oscar nominations — one for adapted screenplay for The Graduate and another for directing the 1978 Warren Beatty dramedy Heaven Can Wait.
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Henry worked for over 50 years as a writer, director, and producer, beginning his career in 1961 with The New Steve Allen Show and running until 2014 with 2014’s Babe West. His legacy stretches out for decades ahead of him; not only has Get Smart been either relaunched or adapted into films a number of times, but his screenplay for The Graduate has inspired copycats and a quasi-official sequel in the form of the 2010 Jennifer Aniston film Rumor Has It…. Catch-22, the groundbreaking satire that Henry adapted into a feature film, has been transformed into a TV series for Hulu.
“R.I.P. Buck Henry – our most fearless screenwriter,” Dolemite is My Name and The People vs. Larry Flynt screenwriter Larry Karaszewski wrote on Twitter. “Buck was also a big personality and a performer… he gave screenwriting a face. Growing up I could turn on Saturday Night Live (which Buck hosted 10 times) and point to the funniest, smartest guy and say – that’s a screenwriter.”
“Buck Henry went to my college and came back when I was a sophomore in 1995 and 8 of us got to go to lunch with him,” wrote The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse writer/producer Christopher Miller. “I peppered him with questions the whole time and he was nice, even though in retrospect I was very annoying.”
Henry was also an onscreen presence throughout his career, appearing in dozens of films and TV series, including Franklin and Bash, Murphy Brown, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Tales From the Crypt. He was also the first person ever to host Saturday Night Live ten times, and appeared regularly on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and The Late Show With David Letterman.
Our thoughts are with Henry’s family during this time.
