Jack Klugman

Jack Klugman, who played the sports-loving, slobby-living Oscar Madison on television and stage in “The Odd Couple” across from his close friend Tony Randall, has died. He was 90.

Klugman, a resident of Malibu, Calif., died Monday in Los Angeles, The Associated Press reported, citing his son Adam. He had surgery for throat cancer in 1989, then worked to rehabilitate his acting voice.

Raised in a rough Philadelphia neighborhood, Klugman carried a no-nonsense persona into roles as an agonized juror in the movie “12 Angry Men,” as a headstrong medical examiner in the TV series “Quincy, M.E.” and, most famously, as half of “The Odd Couple,” which ran on ABC from 1970 to 1975.

Klugman played the divorced, cigar-chomping, laundry-tossing sports columnist who, in a moment of charity, opened his apartment to his precise, finicky, hypochondriac photographer friend, Felix Unger, who needs a home after being expelled by his wife. They clashed — over women and money, food and furniture, habits and style — through five seasons and 114 episodes.

Klugman said the fact that he and Randall resembled their characters in real life helped the show succeed, as did their training as stage actors. Many of the show’s funniest scenes were improvised.

“Tony and I never saw the show as merely a frolic, but rather as a portrait of friendship,” Klugman wrote in his 2005 memoir, “Tony and Me.”

Randall’s death in 2004, ending a 35-year friendship and collaboration, prompted Klugman to write his book. He credited Randall with helping him survive throat cancer in 1989 and in making him a more open person and a better father.

For each of the five seasons of “The Odd Couple,” Klugman and Randall both received Emmy nominations for best leading actor. Klugman won in 1973 and 1971. Randall won in 1975.