Arthur Buchwald (BUK-wahld; October 20, 1925 – January 17, 2007) was an American humorist best known for his column in The Washington Post.

He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for Outstanding Commentary, and in 1991 was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, in addition to other awards.

When the family business failed at the start of the Great Depression, Buchwald's father put the boy in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York City, as he could not care for him.

Buchwald was soon placed in foster homes, and lived in several, including a Queens boarding house for sick children (he had rickets because of poor nutrition).

Buchwald was eventually reunited with his father and sisters; the family settled in Hollis, a residential community in Queens.

At USC he became managing editor of the campus magazine Wampus; he also wrote a column for the college newspaper, the Daily Trojan.

The university permitted him to continue his studies after learning he had not graduated from high school, but deemed him ineligible for a degree.

After establishing his national reputation and winning the Pulitzer Prize, he was invited as a commencement speaker in 1993 and received an honorary doctorate from the university.

In postwar Paris, Buchwald met many American expatriate writers, going about with Janet Flanner, E.B.

He also had brief encounters with the artist Pablo Picasso, writer Ernest Hemingway, directors Orson Welles and Mike Todd, actress Audrey Hepburn, and attorney Roy Cohn.

[5] Buchwald enjoyed the notoriety he received when U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower's press secretary, James Hagerty, took seriously a spoof press conference report claiming that reporters asked questions about the president's breakfast habits.

"[6] On August 24, 1959, Time magazine, in reviewing the history of the European edition of The Herald Tribune, reported that Buchwald's column had achieved an "institutional quality".

While in Paris, Buchwald became the only correspondent to substantively interview famous American singer Elvis Presley, who had entered the U.S. Army.

They met at the Prince de Galles Hotel, where the soon-to-be Sergeant Presley was staying during a week-end off from his army stint in Germany.

Presley's impromptu performances at the piano at Le Lido nightclub, as well as his singing for the showgirls after most of the customers had left, became legendary after Buchwald included it in his memoir, I'll Always Have Paris (1995).

He also contributed fumetti to Marvel Comics' Crazy Magazine, which tore apart statistics regarding 1970s campus life.

Near the beginning of the movie, an issue of the Paris Herald Tribune is shown in close-up to highlight a column, bylined by Buchwald, about jewel thefts on the French Riviera, which sets up the plot.

In 1988, Buchwald and partner Alain Bernheim filed suit against Paramount Pictures in a controversy over the Eddie Murphy film Coming to America.

Political analyst Norman Ornstein in 1991 said he thought Buchwald's column was more popular "outside the Beltway"; others disagreed.

By contrast, when the paper cancelled the comic strip Zippy the Pinhead, so many readers complained that the editors were compelled to bring it back.

On February 16, 2006, the Associated Press reported that Buchwald had had a leg amputated below the knee and was staying at Washington Home and Hospice.

During the show, which aired on February 24, 2006, he revealed his decision to discontinue hemodialysis, which had previously been initiated to treat kidney failure, another result of his having diabetes mellitus.