How Jack Klugman Regained His Voice After Throat Cancer

Jack Klugman is one of America’s favorite television actors, known mostly for his role as the untidy sports writer Oscar Madison against Tony Randal’s highly neurotic, anal retentive Felix Unger in the hit TV show, The Odd Couple. Jack had successfully battled throat cancer, but unfortunately, one of his vocal folds had to be removed, and his remaining one became permanently scarred due to radiation therapy. His doctors did their best to try to save at least a percentage of his speaking voice by inserting a prosthetic where the cancerous vocal fold had been, but the procedure did little to bring back his voice. Jack was left with a raspy, hardly audible noise for a voice.

When I learned of Jack’s condition, I contacted him and made him an offer that he couldn’t refuse: “I’ll bring your voice back and it won’t cost you a thing.” Jack was despondent; without his voice, life offered him very little. Not only was Jack a great talker, but talking was his life. He openly admitted as much when he told me, “When someone asks me the time, I tell the person the time, about the watch that I wear, where I bought it, and what it’s made of.”

How could Jack refuse my offer? What did he have to lose? He chose to believe in a fellow South Philadelphian, and even offered to pay me, so we set to work building back his voice. I knew during the first lesson that I was going to be able to help him. I began hearing those old familiar voice building sounds that tell me that there is a voice on its way—Jack knew it too after he tested his voice and noticed a small tone increase.

Within a month, Jack’s voice was significantly stronger as his familiar vocal quality began to replace his breathy rasp, and with my encouragement, he began to plan a return to the stage with Tony Randall in a revival of The Odd Couple. In the spring of 1992, I flew to New York for the opening night at the Belasco Theatre. Jack’s voice was far from beautiful, but it was present and everyone heard it. The audience laughed in all the right places and rewarded him with a heart-felt standing ovation. I was deeply touched when he singled me out in the audience and gave me credit as the teacher who, along with his surgeon, had given him his voice back. Ever since, Jack has been one of my staunchest supporters and has recounted our work together a number of times on the popular talk-show Larry King Live, in People Magazine, Readers Digest, and in his entertaining, oneman play—An Evening with Jack Klugman—where Jack tells his life story and chronicles his remarkable career in show business.

Image source: Angela George CC BY-SA 3.0