BUCKOLOGY

Trying to track Buck Henry through the thicket of his multi-hyphenate career—writer, actor, once-in-a- blue-moon director—is a daunting task. We’ve picked out the most pertinent peaks (and one relevant valley).

Get Smart (1965-70) Henry co-created the iconic TV spy spoof with Mel Brooks, then wrote and story-edited the first two seasons. His extra dry lunacy this is the man who gave us the “cone of silence” permeates every frame.

The Graduate (1967) Henry took Charles Webb’s novel, played up the social conflict, made Benjamin Braddock a schlemiel and Mrs. Robinson a figure to be both feared and pitied, and ended up capturing the Zeitgeist in a bottle. And who’s that playing the nosy hotel clerk?

Catch-22 (1970) Henry and Mike Nichols re-upped with this ambitious, tonally ambiguous all-star adaptation of Joseph Heller’s acclaimed novel. It was a bust in 1970—not least because M*A*S*H beat it into theaters by a few months—but it has aged surprisingly well and its portrait of military absurdity is bleakly prescient.

Taking Off (1971) Milos Forman’s farce is a lost New Hollywood classic and maybe the gentlest comedy about the divide between ’60s kids and their parents. Henry didn’t write it, but it’s his only feature film lead role as a suburban dad who ends up naked at a pot party.

What’s Up, Doc? (1972) Screenwriter Henry and director Peter Bogdanovich tried to channel 1930s screwball comedies (in particular, Bringing Up Baby) for counterculture audiences, and damned if they didn’t pull it off. Endlessly quotable, it’s still the funniest movie either Barbra Streisand or Ryan O’Neal ever made.

The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) Director Nicolas Roeg’s surreal morality play about an extraterrestrial (David Bowie) adrift in America has one of Henry’s more piquant supporting parts as the hero’s fussy, flawed business partner. It’s a hint of the dramatic roles that never came Henry’s way but should have.

Saturday Night Live With 10 hosting appearances between 1976 and 1980, Henry was practically an adjunct Not Ready for Prime-Time Player, serving as straight man to John Belushi’s samurai and creating one character, Uncle Roy the pedophile babysitter, that pushed the comedy envelope to the breaking point.

First Family (1980) Henry’s only stab at directing (aside from co-helming Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty) was a presidential comedy, starring Bob Newhart and Gilda Radner, that tanked upon release. “It was a disaster for me,” Henry says now. “I don’t enjoy getting up that early in the morning. I don’t enjoy making decisions all day long.”

The Player (1992) Robert Altman’s takedown of the movie industry gives space in its celebrated eight-minute opening shot to Henry, as himself, trying to sell a ridiculous pitch for The Graduate Part 2. The laugh was on him: After the film opened, more than one film executive told Henry it was a good idea for an actual movie. Saner heads (i.e., Henry’s) prevailed.

To Die For (1995) Is this Buck Henry’s best, sharpest screenplay? A pitch- black comedy about a TV weathergirl (Nicole Kidman) who has her husband (Matt Dillon) murdered by her teenaged lover (Joaquin Phoenix), it’s a ruthless examination of the all-American lust for fame. -T.B.