Born as Henry Zuckerman, Buck Henry changed his name quite likely for the same reason that many people in show business do. His dry sense of humor and wit made him a popular character in the business and it wasn’t too long until he became a part of TV history by starring on shows such as The New Steve Allen Show and even That Was The Week That Was. He even had the chance to co-create Get Smart, one of the most loved shows on TV for a while, with Mel Brooks. He had a couple of ideas for TV shows that made it onto the screen but had very short runs and were gone before a lot of people could get to know them. But aside from that he continued to show up in other shows as a guest star and made quite an impact as his career continued.
It was definitely a different time when Buck was coming up through the business as it seems as though there was a lot more creative freedom even if the censors were just as strict at times. Nowadays it kind of seems as though just about everything is being cracked down on and the rules have been fashioned to exclude anything and everything that’s not considered to be family-friendly even in the wee hours of the morning when most people are asleep. Buck’s sense of humor was and is still dry enough that he’s not really the type of person that might bust out with a joke that’s deemed as inappropriate or material that will offend a great many people, but he did belong to an era where stereotypes were still the norm and still very much allowed.
One big feather in his cap was his stint with Saturday night live that lasted for years and saw him host the show 10 times between 1976 and 1980. That was a record back then and it held for nearly a decade until Steve Martin broke it by hosting for an astounding 11 times. His time on SNL made a lot of people thought that he was the actual host of the show, but obviously this was debunked rather quickly since SNL has made it well known that they bring in many new hosts throughout each season. What did happen was that Buck would be brought in for the final show of each season for a while, barring the 88-89 season that was hosted by Steve Martin. While he got to participate with the other comedians Buck was made into several different characters to please the crowd, but there was one incident in which he was injured, and that happened during one of John Belushi’s samurai skits. Buck unfortunately suffered a head injury and had to wear a large bandage on his forehead for the rest of the show. To display some sense of solidarity and to make it into a gag the rest of the SNL members wore a bandage on their foreheads as well throughout the episode.
Since that time Buck has shown up in a number of different TV shows and movies and has had the same type of dry humor that got him into the business in the first place. As the saying goes ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. This would seem to apply to Mr. Henry since he’s been doing the same type of comedy for a while now and has made it work for him throughout the years. The argument of course would be that since he’s made it work so well that he should stay with it, and so he has.
It doesn’t seem like he’s done much of late since his resume stops around 2015 when it comes to movies, but his bio does state that he’s still active. At the age of 87 however one has to kind of assume that Buck is slowing down just a bit and might need to take it easy now and again. He’s kept up with his acting career for quite a while though and has been seen in various productions that many might remember him, such as the clip above. His screen time in Grumpy Old Men wasn’t all that long but at the same time he played a part that people just loved to hate. Snyder was a fellow that worked for the county and was in the process of taking everything away from John Gustafson due to overpayment of benefits for 20 years. Despite their years-long quarrels John’s neighbor Max was good enough to eventually help pay the fines and help John keep his house, with the opportunity to get just a little payback on Snyder.
Buck Henry has had a nice long career that has seen him rise from obscurity to become a man that’s fairly well-known and has done quite a bit in his life.
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