Neil Simon, Broadway's master of comedy, dies at 91

TampBay.cOm /AP ^ | 8/26/2018

[Borges]

Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as "The Odd Couple," ''Barefoot in the Park" and his "Brighton Beach" trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. He was 91.

Simon died early Sunday of complications from pneumonia surrounded by family at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, said Bill Evans, his longtime friend and the Shubert Organization director of media relations.

In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was the American theater's most successful and prolific playwrights, often chronicling middle class issues and fears.

[TBP]

My mother did some acting, and she did a fair amount of work as an extra. You can see her in the movie version of The Odd Couple over Jack Lemmon's shoulder in the supermarket. A number of her friends acted as well. One such was her friend Vanda. Vanda was a New Yorker through and through and even had the accent. (You might have seen her on The Lucy Show -- her husband was a cousin of Lucy's second husband.) Vanda's favorite expression, in her Noo Yawk accent, was "Oh my Gawd." She said it a lot. Vanda was doing summer stock and the director was Danny Simon, Neil's brother. Neil was working the room when he got to Vanda. Her eyes widened and she said, "Oh my Gawd, you're Neil Simon!" he looked at her and said, "I'm gonna use that." About a year later, The Out of Towners came out, starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis. All through the movie, Sandy Dennis can be heard saying "Oh my Gawd" just like Vanda.