Famed playwright Neil Simon, 91, has died. He was celebrated for such works as The Odd Couple and Lost in Yonkers. He was nominated for numerous awards, winning three Tonys.
I didn't know he started on television. Either that or I forgot about it.
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A master of the set-’em-up, knock-’em-down style of comedy, Simon helped build the sitcom form as a writer on such 1950s hits as Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows and The Phil Silvers Show. However, it was for the stage that Simon honed his quintessential style and invented the stage dramedy, extracting humor out of daily life. His unrelenting wisecracks and approachable tone made him an audience favorite.
“Neil has the ability to write characters — even the leading characters that we’re supposed to root for — that are absolutely flawed,” Jack Lemmon, who starred as Felix Ungar in the 1968 film adaptation of Simon’s The Odd Couple, once said of the writer. “They have foibles. They have faults. But, they are human beings. They are not all bad or all good; they are people we know.”
Born Marvin Neil Simon in the Bronx on July 4, 1927, he grew up in Washington Heights during the Great Depression. His father, Irving, was a garment salesman and his mother, Mamie, a homemaker. His parents’ financial difficulties affected their marriage, and Simon’s childhood was an unhappy one. He graduated at age 16 from DeWitt Clinton High School, where he earned the nickname “Doc.”
Here is a vintage appearance by Simon on the Tonight Show:
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