Broadway icon dies
Neil Simon 1927-2018
Neil Simon wrote dozens of popular plays and movies, including: “Come Horn” (1961) Blow Your — Simon’s Broadway debut, about a young man who moves in with his suave older brother and learns about romance. Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb starred in the movie version. “Barefoot in the Park”
(1963) — A Broadway comedy about a free-spirited woman and her uptight new husband. Robert Redford starred with Elizabeth Ashley on stage and with Jane Fonda on screen.
“The Odd Couple” (1965) — The humorous tale of a slob and a neat freak sharing a Manhattan apartment. The Broadway play won Simon his first Tony and was turned into a movie and TV show, with several revivals and remakes. “The Sunshine Boys” (1972) — Cranky former
vaudeville performers reunite for a TV special, even though they hate each other. The movie version marked the comeback, at age 79, of comedian George Burns, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance.
“Chapter Two” (1977) — A semi-autobiographical retelling of Simon’s relationship with actress Marsha Mason after the cancer death of his first wife, Joan Baim. Mason starred in the movie version and was nominated for an Oscar.
“The Goodbye Girl” (1977) — Simon wrote the screenplay for this romantic comedy starring Richard Dreyfuss, who won an Oscar for his role as a struggling actor who moves in with an unemployed dancer, played by Mason, and her 10-year-old daughter. Simon turned the movie into a Broadway musical with Bernadette Peters and Martin Short. “Brighton Beach Memoirs” (1983) — The first chapter of Simon’s acclaimed, semiautobiographical trilogy, starring Matthew Broderick as the playwright’s stand-in, Eugene
Jerome. The actor, in his first Broadway role, won a Tony Award for the performance.
“Biloxi Blues” (1985) — Simon won his second Tony for the second chapter of his “Eugene trilogy,” which again starred Broderick in both the stage and screen versions. “Broadway Bound” (1986) — The trilogy’s final chapter saw Broderick replaced by Jonathan Silverman, who had starred in the movie version of “Brighton Beach Memoirs.”
“Lost in Yonkers” (1991) — Simon won a Pulitzer and his third Tony for this comedic drama about two brothers sent to live with their overbearing grandmother, mentally challenged aunt and gangster uncle. The play netted Tonys for Mercedes Ruehl, Kevin Spacey and Irene Worth.