- Wife, Sarah Cunningham, died of an asthma attack at the 1986 Oscar telecast ceremony.
- Blacklisted during the McCarthy era.
- Won Broadway's 1987 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for "Broadway Bound."
- Originally played Frank Costanza in the Seinfeld (1989) episode "The HandicapSpot." After he was replaced by Jerry Stiller, his scenes in the episode were re-filmed with Stiller as well.
- Upon his death, he was cremated. His ashes are buried in Topanga, California's Theatricum Botanicum.
- Changed his name to John Randolph from Emanuel Cohen in 1940.
- Appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: All the President's Men (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Prizzi's Honor (1985).
- Spent two years of training in the Federal Theater Project in the 1930s.
- Alumnus of Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
- Along with Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, Linda Harrison, Ricardo Montalban, Natalie Trundy and Severn Darden, he is one of only nine actors to play the same character in more than one film in the original "Planet of the Apes" series. He played the Chairman of the President's Committee of Inquiry in both Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).
- He was a staunch liberal Democrat and socialist.
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