Neil Simon, 1927-2018

Neil Simon, the playwright who turned a bunch of his plays into movies and who wrote several original screenplays, has died at the age of 91.

Simon's writing career started in radio and TV, notably on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows where he worked not only with Caeasar, but also his own brother Danny, and Mel Brooks among others. Eventually, Simon turned to writing plays, with his first, Come Blow Your Horn, becoming a big hit on Broadway in 1961. (Come Blow Your Horn would be turned into a movie in 1963, although that screenplay was written by Norman Lear, not Neil Simon.) A string of successes on Broadway followed, and quite a few of those plays were turned into movies with Simon writing the screenplays, starting with early successes Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple, the latter probably being Simon's most-remembered work.

Among the other plays that were turned into movies with Simon writing the screenplay are Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, and The Sunshine Boys, the last being one of my favorites. But in addition to writing all those stage plays, Simon wrote several screenplays directly for the screen. The Goodbye Girl comes across as a play in many ways, but it was actually written for the screen. Seems Like Old Times and The Out-of-Towners do seem a bit more open than the stage plays.

Simon was nominated for an Oscar four times, for The Odd Couple, The Sunshine Boys, The Goodbye Girl, and California Suite, but he never won. Simon is survived by ex-wife Marsha Mason (also the star of a couple of Simon's screenplays), and last wife Elaine Joyce.