Jack Klugman, ‘Quincy’ star and messy half of ‘The Odd Couple,’ dies

By Doug Most, Globe Staff

Go and toss your laundry on the floor, knock a few crumbs off the counter, spill a drink on the rug and leave your bed a mess. Jack Klugman, who played Oscar Madison, the famously sloppy and slovenly roommate of Tony Randall’s Felix Ungar, died today. He was 90.

More contemporary TV fans might remember him best as Dr. Quincy from “Quincy M.E.” and the older folks may prefer to recall his role in “12 Angry Men.”

But it was Oscar who made Klugman famous, a cigar-chomping, divorced sportswriter who took a perverse pleasure in torturing his notoriously neat roommate by leaving their Manhattan apartment -- not to mention the streest of New York -- in a perpetual state of clutter and filth.

“The Odd Couple” began as a Neil Simon Broadway play in 1965 before coming to the movie screen three years later and then into living rooms as a TV series in the 1970s.

So go ahead. Make a mess. Oscar would be proud.