All the world was his stage
Simon racked up more than 9,000 performances of his work on Broadway between 1965 and 1980. OFTEN CALLED THE WORLD’S MOST POPULAR PLAYWRIGHT AFTER SHAKESPEARE, NEIL SIMON WAS DRIVEN BY LIFE’S JOYS AND TRAGEDIES AND ITS EFFECTS ON PEOPLE
The fact that his 30-odd plays have the highest hit ratio of any American author, that they won four Tony awards, and that half were made into films, all comes down to his brand of equalopportunity humour.
Few things in the irrational world of theatre are as easy to explain as the success of Neil Simon, who died aged 91 in New York on Sunday due to complications with pneumonia, according to his publicist, Bill Evans. Simon was often called the world’s most popular playwright after Shakespeare.
The fact that his 30-odd plays have the highest hit ratio of any American author, that they won four Tony awards, and that half were made into films, all comes down to his brand of equal-opportunity humour.
Marvin Neil Simon was born in a celebrated American place — New York City — on a celebratory date — July 4 — and these fates of birth can be seen to have shaped his writing.
He was born to Irving Simon, who sold fabric to garment-makers, and Mamie Levy Simon. His only sibling, Danny, was eight years older and became his mentor and partner.
The brothers grew up in a turbulent and insecure home. Acrimony between their parents often filled the family’s apartment in Washington Heights, at Manhattan’s northern tip. Their father moved out, returned and moved out again, leaving mother and sons to fend for themselves for as long as a year at a time.
The shyness of his years at DeWitt Clinton high school evaporated when he was at the movies, where he laughed so loud at Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton that he was sometimes asked to leave. After a stint in the military and attending the University of Denver, Simon discovered his gift for comedy, and collaborated with his elder brother, Danny, on radio and TV scripts.
An early break landed Simon a job as a writer on Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, then a hugely popular TV phenomenon, alongside Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart.
Often, Simon’s plays contained lines that took on lives of their own. The expression “Africa hot”, for instance, used to define the steamiest weather, came from a commentary on Mississippi heat in Biloxi Blues (1984). That his plays were both accessible and easy to produce meant that they penetrated to the most humble reaches of the theatre world, including student and amateur productions.
During Simon’s long peak, which ran roughly from 1965 to 1985, there were flops. But plays such as The Gingerbread Lady, written in 1970 but revised, were harbingers of better works that he would write later.
Then there were the steps backward he learned not to take. In the 1966-67 season, Simon had four shows running simultaneously — Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, Sweet Charity and The Star-Spangled Girl — though the last one showed his
touch was not always golden. Respect for Simon’s script-craft was such that, in Hollywood, where screenplays are notoriously prone to pass through multiple hands, he achieved 20 solo writing credits, mainly for adaptations of the plays, receiving four Oscar nominations, between 1968 and 78, for The Odd Couple, The Sunshine
Boys, The Goodbye Girl and California Suite. His key movie muse was Walter Matthau, who played both one of the odd couple and one of the sunshine boys.
The central turning point in Simon’s life, both personal and artistic, was the death of his first wife, Joan Baim. She probably would have been his only wife had she not died of cancer in 1973, after 20 years of marriage. Their marital ups and downs no doubt fuelled much of the volatile dialogue in his plays (he described one fight as ending with him being assaulted with a veal chop).
In October 1973, Simon wed Hollywood actress Marsha Mason — three months after the death of his first wife, Joan Baim. His play Chapter Two
(1977), about a widower who suffers guilt from his remarriage, foreshadowed the collapse of the Simon-Mason union.
He was wed twice to actress Diane Lander (1987–1988 and 1990–1998), and actress Elaine Joyce (1999–2018).
His third and fourth marriages, both to Diane Lander, also ended in divorce. In 1999, he married actress Elaine Joyce. He became one of the country’s wealthiest writers, reportedly making $60,000 a week by the late 1960s on his Broadway shows alone.
The late 90s were not happy for Simon. He suffered from clinical depression and walked out on his marriage to Lander.
In addition to his wife, survivors include two daughters from first marriage, Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon, both of Santa Barbara, California; a stepdaughter he adopted, Bryn Lander Simon; two stepchildren, Taylor Van of Beverly Hills, California, and Michael Levoff of Manhattan; five grandchildren and a great-grandson.