Buck Henry (Zuckerman) ’52

Buck Henry (Zuckerman) ’52, a comic actor and screenwriter, passed away from a heart attack on January 8 in Los Angeles, according to his wife, Irene Ramp. She is his sole survivor. Buck was born on December 9, 1930, in New York City. He attended the Choate School in Connecticut and graduated from Dartmouth with an English degree. Buck was an editor of The Dartmouth, wrote for the Jack-O-Lantern, and was active in theater and film. He also was featured in the promotional film, My First Week at Dartmouth, even before he started College. From 1952 to 1954 Buck served in the U.S. Army. He wrote screenplays for more than a dozen movies, acted in at least 40 films, and in the 1960s earned writing credits for a string of TV comedy series. His work garnered him three Emmy nominations, and he earned the award in 1967 for his writing collaboration on the TV show, Get Smart. Buck’s big break in the film industry was with his screenplay for The Graduate. The script earned him his first Academy Award nomination for best-adapted screenplay (1967). He made his directorial debut with Heaven Can Wait, for which he was nominated for best director (1978) with codirector Warren Beatty. In the late 1970s Henry appeared semi-regularly on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, hosting 10 times.