Broadway, Hollywood mourns death of playwright Simon
NEW YORK — Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as The Odd Couple, Barefoot in
the Park and his Brighton Beach trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91.
Simon died early on Sunday of complications from pneumonia at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, said Bill Evans, a longtime friend and spokesman for Shubert Organization theaters.
In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was US theater’s most successful and prolific playwright, often chronicling middle class issues and fears. Starting with Come
Blow Your Horn in 1961 and continuing into the next century, he rarely stopped working on a new play or musical. His list of credits is staggering.
The theater world quickly mourned his death, including Tony Award-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, who tweeted that Simon “could write a joke that would make you laugh, define the character, the situation, and even the world’s problems”. Matthew Broderick, who in 1983 made his Broadway debut in Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs and his movie debut in Simon’s Max Dugan Returns, added: “I owe him a career. The theater has lost a brilliantly funny, unthinkably wonderful writer. And even after all this time, I feel I have lost a mentor, a father figure, a deep influence in my life and work.”
For seven months in 1967, he had four productions running at the same time on Broadway.
Simon was born Marvin Neil Simon in New York and was raised in the Bronx and Washington Heights. He was a Depression-era child, his father, Irving, a garment-industry salesman. He was raised mostly by his strongwilled mother, Mamie, and mentored by his older brother, Danny.
In a 1997 interview with The Washington Post, Simon reflected on his success: “I know that I have reached the pinnacle of rewards. There’s no more money anyone can pay me that I need. There are no awards they can give me that I haven’t won. I have no reason to write another play except that I am alive and I like to do it,” he said.