Buck Henry (born Henry Zuckerman; December 9, 1930 – January 8, 2020) was an American actor, screenwriter, and director. Henry's contributions to film included his work as a co-writer for Mike Nichols's The Graduate (1967) for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He appeared in acting roles in Nichols's Catch-22 (1970)—also co-written with Nichols—Herbert Ross's The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), and Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972). In 1978, he co-directed Heaven Can Wait (1978) with Warren Beatty, receiving a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. He later appeared in Albert Brooks's Defending Your Life (1991), and the Robert Altman films The Player (1992) and Short Cuts (1993).

His long career began on television with work on shows with Steve Allen in The New Steve Allen Show (1961). He co-created Get Smart (1965–1970) with Mel Brooks for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. He also served as a 10-time host of Saturday Night Live (SNL) and was the inaugural member of the show's Five Timer's Club, a humorous designation used to denote people who have hosted at least five episodes of SNL. He later guest-starred in such popular shows as Murphy Brown, Hot in Cleveland, Will & Grace, and 30 Rock.

Henry was born on December 9, 1930, in New York City, as Henry Zuckerman. His mother was Ruth Taylor (January 13, 1905 – April 12, 1984), a silent film actress, star of the original version of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and his father was Paul Steinberg Zuckerman (April 15, 1899 – December 3, 1965), an Air Force brigadier general and stockbroker. Though the young Zuckerman was nicknamed 'Buck' from childhood, he did not officially change his name to Buck Henry until the 1970s; both his birth name and nickname came from his grandfather.

Henry attended The Choate School, at the time an all-boys institution (now Choate Rosemary Hall). At 15 years old, he made his professional acting debut in a Broadway production of Life with Father, which later toured theaters in Brooklyn, Long Island, and the Bronx. Henry earned a bachelor's degree in English literature and a senior fellowship in writing at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, where he wrote for the college humor magazine, the Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, and met movie director Bob Rafelson.

Following graduation, he enlisted in the Army during the Korean War. He served in West Germany first as a helicopter mechanic and then transferred to Special Services, where he toured with the Seventh Army Repertory Company, performing in a play he both wrote and directed.

Henry joined the improvisational comedy group the Premise, whose ranks included George Segal and Theodore J. Flicker, performing in the West Village in Manhattan. This helped lead him into a television career.

From 1959 to 1962, as part of an elaborate hoax by comedian Alan Abel, he made public appearances as G. Clifford Prout, the quietly outraged president of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, who presented his point of view on talk shows. The character of Prout wished to clothe all animals in order to prevent their 'indecency', using slogans such as "A nude horse is a rude horse". Henry played the character with deadpan sincerity. He was often presented as an eccentric, but was otherwise taken seriously by the broadcasters who interviewed him. "Prout" received many letters of support from TV viewers, and even some unsolicited monetary donations, all of which were invariably returned, as neither Henry nor Abel (who had no intention of following through on the Society's stated aims) wanted to be accused of raising money fraudulently.

Henry became a cast member on The New Steve Allen Show (1961) and the US version of That Was the Week That Was (1964–1965).