Neil Simon

Marvin Neil Simon (born July 4, 1927) is an American playwright and screenwriter. His numerous Broadway succcesses have led to his work being among the most regularly performed in the world. Though primarily a comic writer, some of his plays, particularly the Eugene Trilogy and The Sunshine Boys, reflect on the twentieth century Jewish-American experience.

Early years

Simon was born in The Bronx, New York City to Mamie and Irving Simon, a garment salesman. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School. He briefly attended New York University from 1944 to 1945 and the University of Denver from 1945 to 1946. Two years later, he quit his job as a mailroom clerk in the Warner Brothers offices in Manhattan to write radio and television scripts with his brother Danny Simon, including a tutelage under radio humourist Goodman Ace when Ace ran a short-lived writing workshop for CBS. Their revues for Camp Tamiment in Pennsylvania in the early 1950s caught the attention of Sid Caesar, who hired the duo for his popular TV comedy series Your Show of Shows. Simon later incorporated their experiences into his play Laughter on the 23rd Floor. His work won him two Emmy Award nominations and the appreciation of Phil Silvers, who hired him to write for Sergeant Bilko in 1959.

Career

In 1961, Simon's first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where it ran for 678 performances. Six weeks after its closing, his second production, the musical Little Me opened to mixed reviews. Although it failed to attract a large audience, it earned Simon his first Tony Award nomination. Overall, he has garnered seventeen Tony nominations and won three. He also won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Lost In Yonkers.

In 1966 Simon had four shows running on Broadway at the same time: Sweet Charity, The Star-Spangled Girl, The Odd Couple, and Barefoot in the Park. His professional association with producer Emanuel Azenberg began with The Sunshine Boys in 1972 and continued with The Good Doctor, God's Favorite, Chapter Two, They're Playing Our Song, I Ought to Be in Pictures, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, Broadway Bound, Jake's Women, The Goodbye Girl, and Laughter on the 23rd Floor, among others.

Simon also has written screenplays for more than twenty films. These include adaptations of his own plays and original work too, including The Out-of-Towners, Murder by Death and The Goodbye Girl. He has received four Best Screenplay Academy Award nominations.

Simon has been conferred with two honoris causa degrees; a Doctor of Humane Letters from Hofstra University and a Doctor of Laws from Williams College. He is the namesake of the legitimate Broadway theater the Neil Simon Theatre, formerly the Alvin Theatre, and an honorary member of the Walnut Street Theatre's board of trustees.

Personal life

Simon has been married five times, to dancer Joan Baim (1953-1973), actress Marsha Mason (1973-1981), twice to Diane Lander (1987-1988 and 1990-1998), and currently actress Elaine Joyce. He is the father of Nancy and Ellen, from his first marriage, and Bryn, Lander's daughter from a previous relationship whom he adopted.

Awards

1965 Tony Award for Best Author - The Odd Couple
1967 Evening Standard Award - Barefoot in the Park
1978 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay - The Goodbye Girl
1985 Tony Award for Best Play - Biloxi Blues
1989 American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement
1991 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play - Lost in Yonkers
1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama - Lost in Yonkers
1991 Tony Award for Best Play - Lost in Yonkers
1995 Kennedy Center Honoree
2006 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

Work

Plays

Come Blow Your Horn (1961)
Little Me (1962)
Barefoot in the Park (1963)
The Odd Couple (1965)
Sweet Charity (1966)
The Star-Spangled Girl (1966)
Plaza Suite (1968)
Promises, Promises (1968)
The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969)
The Gingerbread Lady (1970)
The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971)
The Sunshine Boys (1972)
The Good Doctor (1973)
God's Favorite (1974)
California Suite (1976)
Chapter Two (1977)
They're Playing Our Song (1979)
I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980)
Fools (1981)
Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)
Biloxi Blues (1985)
The Odd Couple (Female version, 1986)
Broadway Bound (1986)
Rumors (1988)
Lost in Yonkers (1991)
Jake's Women (1992)
The Goodbye Girl (1993)
Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993)
London Suite (1995)
Proposals (1997)
The Dinner Party (2000)
45 Seconds from Broadway (2001)
Rose's Dilemma (2003)

Screenplays

1963: Come Blow Your Horn - Director: Bud Yorkin, screenplay by Norman Lear with Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb
1966: After the Fox - Director: Vittorio DeSica with Peter Sellers and Victor Mature
1967: Barefoot in the Park - Director: Gene Saks with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda
1968: The Odd Couple - Director: Gene Saks with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau
1969: Sweet Charity - Director: Bob Fosse with Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Sammy Davis Jr.
1970: The Out-of-Towners - Director: Arthur Hiller with Jack Lemmon
1971: Plaza Suite - Director: Arthur Hiller with Walter Matthau
1972: The Last of the Red Hot Lovers - Director: Gene Saks with Alan Arkin
1972: The Heartbreak Kid - Director: Elaine May with Cybill Shepard and Charles Grodin
1975: The Prisoner of Second Avenue - Director: Melvin Frank with Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft
1975: The Sunshine Boys - Director: Herbert Ross with Walter Matthau and George Burns
1976: Murder by Death - Director: Robert Moore with Truman Capote, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, David Niven and Peter Sellers
1977: The Goodbye Girl - Director: Herbert Ross with Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason
1978: The Cheap Detective - Director: Robert Moore with Peter Falk, Louise Fletcher, Stockard Channing, Madeline Kahn, John Houseman, Nicol Williamson and Eileen Brennan
1978: California Suite - Director: Herbert Ross with Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby
1978: Chapter Two - Director: Robert Moore with James Caan and Marsha Mason
1980: Seems Like Old Times - Director: Jay Sandrich with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase
1982: I Ought To Be In Pictures - Director: Herbert Ross with Walter Matthau
1983: Max Dugan Returns - Director: Herbert Ross with Matthew Broderick, Marsha Mason, Jason Robards, Kiefer Sutherland and Donald Sutherland
1984: The Lonely Guy - Director: Arthur Hiller with Steve Martin
1985: The Slugger's Wife - Director: Hal Ashby with Michael O'Keefe and Rebecca De Mornay
1986: Brighton Beach Memoirs - Director: Gene Saks with Jonathan Silverman and David Margulies
1988: Biloxi Blues - Director: Mike Nichols with Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken
1991: The Marrying Man - Director: Jerry Rees with Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin
1993: Lost in Yonkers - Director: Martha Coolidge with Richard Dreyfuss
1995: The Sunshine Boys - Director: John Erman with Woody Allen and Peter Falk
1998: The Odd Couple II - Director: Howard Deutch with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau
2004: The Goodbye Girl with Patricia Heaton and Jeff Daniels for Turner Network Television

Translation

The phrase "Neil Simon" occurs as such in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish, Turkish.

Translation(s) in other languages: Arabic: نيل سيمون, Persian: نیل سایمون, Hebrew: ניל סיימון, Japanese: ニール・サイモン, Serbian: Нил Сајмон, Chinese: 尼爾·賽門.