R.I.P. Neil Simon (1927-2018)

Neil Simon

On August 26, 2018, playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon died at the age of 91 in New York City, New York. Over the course of his storied career, he has become the most nominated writer for combined Tony and Oscar nominations. It's for good reason, as his work on stage has included such iconic hits as The Odd Couple and Sweet Charity. He has released a few dozen plays and just as many movies (some based on the plays) and became known for his penchant sympathetic humor that pitted the average man into odd situations. Along with being the only living playwright to have a New York theater named after him, he has had a legacy that is unmatched just in terms of output and laughs. He will be missed for everything that he contributed to the world of theater and film.

Simon was born July 4, 1927 in New York City, New York. He grew up with his family during the Great Depression and found himself collaborating with his brother, Danny Simon, on several projects. He turned to writing when it became unbearable for him to hear his parents fighting, often having his father disappear for months at a time. Due to his lower class state, he felt the need to write as a form of control, and found that laughter could be a good way to connect with audiences in meaningful manners. When he wasn't learning in school, he often found himself either watching movies featuring silent stars like Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton, or reading literature by famous humorists like Mark Twain and Robert Benchley. He was in the Army Air Force Reserve and served as a corporal.

He had many early jobs in show business, including writing radio and television scripts with his brother for Goodman Ace. As he gained more experience, he would come to work on Your Show of Shows and The Phil Silvers Show. He claimed that both of these gigs gave him the confidence and education he needed for the career he wanted. He also received Emmy nominations for his work, which would be the first of many. By 1961, he moved to theater with his first Broadway play Come Blow Your Horn, which ran for 678 performances and took three years to write. While he would become a prolific writer, he would always claim that part of his motivation was just a sense of unease.

By 1965, he had produced Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple, which earned him a Tony Award. It was during this time that he also became the hottest new playwright on Broadway. His work remained prolific and he continued to produce shows that ranged from farce to drama and romance. He even adapted material to the stage, such as Sweet Charity - a musical adaptation of Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria, of which he worked on with Bob Fosse. He never slowed down and always had something in the works. By 1991's Lost in Yonkers, he had gained so much acclaim that he earned a Pulitzer Prize and later even a Mark Twain Award for comedy. 

His relation with film was a bit more fraught, as he didn't initially find the substance in writing for it. He was persuaded however when the first adaptation, Come Blow Your Horn in 1963, was seen as objectionable. Ever since he had some control over the screenplay, often writing them himself. While most were based on his plays, he wrote some originals that included The Out-of-Towners. He still maintained an unsure relationship with film, but his work became acclaimed and lead him to four Oscar nominations, though never any wins. Between his work on stage and film, he received a lot of praise, though was criticized for his dramatic plots that sometimes weren't as strong as his comedy. Still, there was a belief that he would be one of the icons not only for his volume of work, but his quality. He even worked as a script doctor on Broadway-bound shows, such as A Chorus Line.

Simon's career would be difficult to summarize in a quick post, but it's worth exploring a career that has had as many works as his did. He helped to make modern theater what it was, even to the point of having a New York Theater called the Neil Simon Theater open in his honor. As the only living playwright to have that honor, it made him extra special. Still, his work lived on and was adapted in many forms, such as The Odd Couple film being turned into a few TV series over the decades. With all of that said, he is impossible to ignore as a towering giant in theater, and he will be missed for everything that he did to make it a better place. It's hard to imagine theater without him, if just because he did everything in his power to make everyone laugh, and he did it so often that few could compare.