Marvin Neil Simon July 4 1927 August 26 2018 was an American playwright screenwriter and author He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays mostly film adaptations of his plays He has received three Tony Awards and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards He was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1975 the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2006 Simon grew up in New York City during the Great Depression His parents financial difficulties affected their marriage giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood He often took refuge in movie theaters where he enjoyed watching early comedians like Charlie Chaplin After graduating from high school and serving a few years in the Army Air Force Reserve he began writing comedy scripts for radio programs and popular early television shows Among the latter were Sid Caesars Your Show of Shows where in 1950 he worked alongside other young writers including Carl Reiner Mel Brooks Woody Allen Larry Gelbart and Selma Diamond and The Phil Silvers Show which ran from 1955 to 1959 His first produced play was Come Blow Your Horn 1961 It took him three years to complete and ran for 678 performances on Broadway It was followed by two more successes Barefoot in the Park 1963 and The Odd Couple 1965 He won a Tony Award for the latter It made him a national celebrity and the hottest new playwright on Broadway From the 1960s to the 1980s he wrote for stage and screen some of his screenplays were based on his own works for the stage His style ranged from farce to romantic comedy to more serious dramatic comedy Overall he garnered 17 Tony nominations and won three awards In 1966 he had four successful productions running on Broadway at the same time and in 1983 he became the only living playwright to have a New York theatre the Neil Simon Theatre named in his honor Description above from the Wikipedia article Neil Simon licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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