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John Randolph (actor)

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John Randolph (actor)

Emanuel Hirsch Cohen (June 1, 1915 – February 24, 2004), better known by the stage name John Randolph, was an American film, television and stage actor.

Randolph was born Emanuel Hirsch Cohen in New York City on June 1, 1915, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Romania. His mother, Dorothy (née Shorr), was an insurance agent, and his father, Louis Cohen, was a hat manufacturer. In the 1930s, he spent his summers at the Pine Brook Country Club in Nichols, Connecticut, which was the summer home of the Group Theatre. He made his Broadway debut in 1938 in Coriolanus. Randolph joined the United States Army Air Forces in World War II. He had a small role in the 1948 film The Naked City.

He and wife Sarah Cunningham were blacklisted from working in Hollywood films and in New York film and television and radio after 1948. In 1955, they were both called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify concerning ongoing investigations regarding Communist infiltration in the American entertainment industry. Both he and his wife refused to answer questions and cited the Fifth Amendment protection against testifying against themselves.

Randolph was one of the last blacklisted actors to regain employment in Hollywood films when director John Frankenheimer cast him in a major role in Seconds in 1966. Randolph was in the original New York stage productions of The Sound of Music (as Von Trapp's butler, Franz), Paint Your Wagon, and The Visit.

He made his last Broadway appearance in 1991 in Prelude to a Kiss.

Randolph made numerous screen and television appearances in secondary roles. He played Chief Sidney Green in Serpico (1973), directed by Sidney Lumet. From 1973 to 1976, he made three appearances as Cornelius "Junior" Harrison, Jr., father of Emily Hartley, in The Bob Newhart Show (shows #37, #59, and #106).

In 1974, he played an Air Force Colonel in the Columbo episode "Swan Song". He played a mayor in Earthquake (1974), a disaster film. In 1975, Randolph was cast as General Philip Blankenship in The New Original Wonder Woman pilot. He was replaced by Richard Eastham in the television series.

In 1975, Randolph took over the role of the principal of fictional Harry S Truman High School in the series Lucas Tanner starring David Hartman. He was with the series for the last half of its single season. He had an uncredited role in the 1976 film All the President's Men as the voice of Richard Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell.

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