Odd Couple Star Jack Klugman Proved You're Never Too Old For Love With His Second Marriage

The beloved 1970s sitcom "The Odd Couple" is a show whose premise is predicated on the idea of divorce. Based on the 1968 film of the same name (itself based on the 1965 stage play), the series ran from 1970 to 1975. It starred Tony Randall and Jack Klugman as Felix Unger and Oscar Madison, two men with drastically different personalities who become roommates following their respective divorces. Most of the humor stemmed from how much Felix and Madison's lifestyles clashed and, from the sounds of things, Tony Randall and Jack Klugman frequently butted heads in real life too.  

Life also imitated art when Klugman and his wife, Brett Somers, divorced around the time the show ended. With his second marriage, however, the beloved actor proved once and for all that you're never too old to find lasting love. In 2008, decades after Klugman's split from Somers, he married fellow actor Peggy Crosby — when the "Odd Couple" star was notably a whopping 85 years old. Peggy was formerly married to Phillip Crosby, son of the great Bing Crosby (whose net worth at the time of his death may surprise you). Mind you, the happy couple had actually been together since 1988. 

As such, it was a whopping 20 years before they finally tied the knot. It's been speculated that they had to wait until Somers' death in 2007 to get married, because she and Klugman never legally divorced. Of course, this isn't unheard of in celebrity relationships — Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman remained legally married after splitting, alongside Dan Aykroyd and Donna Dixon, whose "loving friendship" proves breakups don't have to be messy. However, this doesn't actually appear to be true in Klugman and Somers' case. Legal records seemingly confirm that they did divorce, in 1977.

By the time they decided to go their separate ways romantically, in 1974, Jack Klugman and Brett Somers had already been married for more than 20 years. Not only that, but the two seemingly remained good friends well after the fact. They were photographed spending time together in the 1980s, years after their reported 1977 divorce, and were even seen exchanging kisses on the cheek while attending an event in 2003. The clear bond between the two may explain why they decided to keep their split as low-key as possible. 

It's also plausible that the reason Klugman waited until after Somers' death to marry longtime girlfriend Peggy Crosby had less to do with legal constraints, and more to do with the "Odd Couple" star's respect for his and Somers' past as a married couple — even if they had both long since moved on from that stage of their lives. Klugman himself passed away at the age of 90 in 2012, just four years after he and Crosby formally tied the knot.

The legacy of Klugman and co-star Tony Randall (who died in 2004) lives on. CBS rebooted "The Odd Couple" in 2015, with the since-departed Matthew Perry taking over Klugman's role and Thomas Lennon playing Randall's. It ran for three seasons, ending in 2017.