Neil Simon Biography

(playwright; born July 4, 1927, the Bronx, New York)

 "If Broadway ever erects a monument to the patron saint of laughter, 
 Neil Simon would have to be it," wrote Time magazine. The movies and 
 television might consider America's most prolific and popular 
 playwright a patron saint as well. He has written 28 plays and holds 
 the record for the greatest number of hits in the American theater. He 
 has had more plays adapted to film than any other playwright, and 
 additionally has written nearly a dozen original film comedies. He 
 helped define television comedy during the medium's legendary early 
 days. In the theater, at the movies, and at home he has kept America 
 laughing for more than 40 years and has been rewarded with four Tony 
 Awards, two Emmys, a Screen Writers Guild Award, and a Pulitzer Prize. 
 What's his secret? The Concise Oxford Companion to American Theatre 
 explains: "He is a shrewd observer of human foibles and a master of 
 the one-line gag." Emanuel Azenberg, his long-time producer, simply 
 suggests, "He genuinely loves the act of writing."  <P>

 Marvin Neil Simon grew up in Washington Heights, a product of a 
 marriage that saw its share of turbulence. After graduating from 
 public school, he enlisted in the Army and began his career writing 
 for an Army camp newspaper. A week later, armistice was declared. 
 After discharge, he returned to New York and became a mailroom clerk 
 for Warner Brothers' East Coast office. Soon he was writing comedy 
 revues with his brother Danny in the Poconos, then for radio, 
 providing material for the likes of Tallulah Bankhead, and finally, 
 for television, where he helped make Phil Silvers, Jackie Gleason, Red 
 Buttons, Garry Moore, Sid Caesar, and Imogene Coca funny. <P>

 Caesar and Coca, of course, were the stars of "Your Show of Shows," 
 the nation's weekly variety show addiction from 1950-54, where Simon 
 and his brother toiled alongside fellow budding talents Woody Allen, 
 Mel Brooks, and Larry Gelbart. But the theater was his destiny and it 
 was there that he and his brother continued their partnership, 
 contributing sketches to a couple of Broadway musicals in the 
 mid-fifties. Eventually he broke out on his own and, after countless 
 drafts, completed a comedy about two brothers who don't want to take 
 over their father's fruit business. Come Blow Your Horn (1961) racked 
 up 677 performances on Broadway and hinted at a promising career. Two 
 years later, Barefoot in the Park fulfilled the promise and launched a 
 legend. <P>

 Throughout the '60s and '70s, Simon would turn out hit after hit for 
 the stage and screen, most of them depicting life in and about New 
 York City -- Manhattan, Brighton Beach, Yonkers, Riverside Drive, 
 Second Avenue, Central Park West. Think of the Simon canon -- The Odd 
 Couple (1965), Sweet Charity (1966), Plaza Suite (1968), The Out of 
 Towners (1970), Promises, Promises (1968), The Prisoner of Second 
 Avenue (1971), The Goodbye Girl (1993), Chapter Two (1977) -- and you 
 get a clear, sharp, and very funny picture of the people crazy and 
 lucky enough to call New York home. <P>

 In the '80s Simon produced his landmark autobiographical trilogy -- 
 Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1985), and Broadway Bound 
 (1986), which chronicled his stormy childhood, Army days, and entry 
 into show business. Now Simon was not only getting the laughs, he was 
 also getting the awards. He crowned this streak with Lost in Yonkers, 
 which won the Pulitzer Price in 1991. Perhaps the secret to Simon's 
 success is his ability, brilliantly displayed in those four plays but 
 evident from the very beginning, to show us -- between, in, and around 
 the funny lines -- the pain, aspiration, and sheer panic behind all 
 those unforgettable characters. <P>

 Currently his newest play, London Suite, is a hit -- naturally -- in 
 New York. And the city which has figured so prominently in his life 
 and work has honored him by making him the only living playwright for 
 whom a Broadway theater is named.