Posted on 08/26/2018 12:00:16 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
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.
In the second half of the 20th century, Simon was the American theater's most successful and prolific playwright, often chronicling middle class issues and fears... His list of credits is staggering.
The theater world quickly mourned his death, including Tony Award-winning actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein, who tweeted that Simon "could write a joke that would make you laugh, define the character, the situation, and even the world's problems."
Matthew Broderick, who in 1983 made his Broadway debut in Simon's "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and his movie debut in Simon's "Max Dugan Returns," added: "I owe him a career. The theater has lost a brilliantly funny, unthinkably wonderful writer. And even after all this time, I feel I have lost a mentor, a father figure, a deep influence in my life and work."
For seven months in 1967, he had four productions running at the same time on Broadway: "Barefoot in the Park," ''The Odd Couple," ''Sweet Charity," and "The Star-Spangled Girl."
Even before he launched his theater career, he made history as one of the famed stable of writers for comedian Sid Caesar that also included Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.
Simon was the recipient of four Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Kennedy Center honors (1995), four Writers Guild of America Awards and an American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement honor. In 1983, he had a Broadway theater named after him when the Alvin was rechristened the Neil Simon Theatre.
In 2006, he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which honors work that draws from the American experience.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
[I think Mel Brooks told that story,]
That’s who it was! It was a riot hearing him tell it.
LOL!
Hilarious movie, and the female lead...marvelous.
The central park encounter with the flasher... “Oh myyyyyy Gooo-d” was the earliest use of the overused OMB today. Her tone and delivery priceless.
The remake, with Steve Martin— a waste of time, and I like Steve. No where near the edge of this guy’s trip to NY to interview for a job. The olde days.
And the ending—— won’t give it away. Great.
The Odd Couple Movie can’t hold a candle to the TV Show. Not even close.
Not to be confused with the continual pain in the a...
Norman Lear and his “protege” Reiner... a meathead in real life and fortunately falling apart.
You chased a dog and you beat a horse; youre stronger than you think!
It’s Simon who should be the subject of 24/7 coverage/tribute. He actually gave something worthwhile and lasting to the world. The traitorous dope from AZ, not so much.
And she was a widow herself (although she married after that and before marrying Simon). Her first husband was Bobby Van - who died way too young of brain cancer if I recall correctly.
That experience led Reiner to create a TV show based on it. The Petries are loosely based on the Reiners, and Alan Brady is based on Sid Caesar.
Hey, he and I share a birthday!
A friend of my mother’s had unknowing input into that movie.
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, “Te 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.
For a time, Simon lived in LA because several of his plays were being made into movies. Like most dyed-in-the-wool New Yorkers, he found LA, shall we say, a bit boring. “There are no people on the streets”, he once complained. He also is quoted as saying that “there are 87 interesting people in Los Angeles.”
Simon said he used to go over to Westwood, where UCLA is located, to stand in the movie lines — not to see the movies, but to feel the press of people around him. It made a New Yorker feel more at home.
I’e always thought the movie is one of the best ever :)
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