Celebrity Death: Neil Simon 91

[CaptainCrunch]

Probably one of the absolute giants of his tine as far as playwrites go. There was a time when you couldn't swing a cap in Broadway and not see a Neil Simon play. A lot of his work also translated tot he Odd Couple. He had a natural commendation pace to his works. He wrote the Brighton Beach Trilogies, The Goodbye Girl, the Odd Couple, The Hearbreak Kid and countless others.


If you look at his generation of writers, Sid Ceasar, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Woody Allen, Simon kind of stands on top of a real golden age of playwrights.


RIP

[DownInFlames]

Brighton Beach Memoirs was the first play I did and it was a lot of fun.

That “Your Show Of Show” writers room was legendary.

[jammies]

I always preferred his work with Garfunkel.

[Northendzone]

^ umm, wrong Simon. You will be happy to know that Paul Simon is alive and well

[jammies]

Um, I'm pretty sure I saw his 1968 play "Mrs. Robinson" - about Jackie Robinson, first transgender athlete in baseball - at a revival on Broadway back when I first went to New York in 2000. Not to mention the 1975 screenplay for "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", which I personally believe was one of Peter Sellers' finest performances with its unforgettable "scuba dive into the toilet" scene. "Mother and Child Reunion", "Kodachrome", "The Sound of Silence", even "You Can Call Me Al*" - all plays that most of us have heard of, if not seen.

In short, sir, I think you are confused, not I.

*Originally cast with Weird Al Yankovic, which lead Mr. Simon to change the name from "You Can Call Me Ishmael" after seeing rehearsals and being emotionally devastated by the pathos Yankovic was able to evoke with nothing more than an empty stage and a detuned accordion.