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Neil Simon Biography

in full Marvin Neil Simon

(1927 - )

Related Works

Plays
1961 Come Blow Your Horn
1962 Little Me (jointly)

1963 Barefoot in the Park
1965 The Odd Couple
1966 Sweet Charity
1966 The Star Spangled Girl
1968 Plaza Suite
1968 Promises, Promies (jointly)
1969 The Last of the Red Hot Lovers
1970 The Gingerbread Lady
1971 The Prisoner of Second Avenue
1972 The Sunshine Boys
1973 The Good Doctor
1974 God's Favorite
1976 California Suite
1977 Chapter Two
1979 They're Playing Our Song (jointly)
1980 I Ought To Be In Pictures
1981 Fools
1983 Brighton Beach Memoirs
1984 Biloxi Blues
1985 The Odd Couple (female version)
1986 Broadway Bound
1988 Rumors
1991 Lost in Yonkers (Pulitzer, Tony)
1992 Jake's Women
1993 The Goodbye Girl
1993 Laughter on the 23rd Floor
1995 London Suite
Screenplays
1966 After the Fox
1967 Barefoot in the Park
1968 The Odd Couple
1970 The Out-of-Towners
1971 Plaza Suite
1972 The Last of the Red Hot Lovers
1973 The Heartbreak Kid
1975 The Prisoner of 2nd Avenue
1975 The Sunshine Boys
1976 Murder by Death
1977 The Goodbye Girl
1978 The Cheap Detective
1978 California Suite
1979 Chapter Two
1980 Seems Like Old Times
1981 Only When I Laugh
1982 I Ought To Be In Pictures
1983 Max Duggan Returns
1984 The Slugger's Wife
1986 Brighton Beach Memoirs
1988 Biloxi Blues
1991 The Marrying Man
1993 Lost in Yonkers
Autobiography
1996 Rewrites: a Memoir
1999 A Memoir : The Play Goes On

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(born July 4, 1927, New York City) American playwright, screenwriter, television writer, and librettist who was one of the most popular playwrights in the history of the American theatre.

Simon was raised in the Bronx and studied at New York University before working as a comedy writer for various television shows in the late 1940s and throughout the '50s. His autobiographical play Come Blow Your Horn became a smash success on Broadway and ran for two years after opening in 1961. The plays that followed proved extremely popular with audiences and usually had very long runs on Broadway. They include Barefoot in the Park (1963; film 1967), The Odd Couple (1965; film 1968), The Star-Spangled Girl (1966; film 1971), Plaza Suite (1968; film 1971), Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969; film 1972), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971; film 1975), The Sunshine Boys (1972; film 1975), California Suite (1976; film 1978), Chapter Two (1977; film 1979), I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980; film 1982), and a trilogy of autobiographical plays consisting of Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983; film 1986), Biloxi Blues (1985; film 1988), and Broadway Bound (1986; television movie 1992). Subsequent plays include Rumors (1988), Lost in Yonkers (1991; film 1993), and The Dinner Party (2000). Simon wrote the screenplays for motion-picture adaptations of his plays as well as screenplays for a number of original motion pictures. He also wrote the books for musicals, including Little Me (1962), Sweet Charity (1966), Promises, Promises (1968), They're Playing Our Song (1979), and The Goodbye Girl (1993).

The everyday lives and domestic problems of ordinary middle-class people are the focus of Simon's plays, which examine his characters' marital and other dilemmas and, for comic effect, play up the incongruity of their situations. Simon wrote two volumes of memoirs, Rewrites (1996) and The Play Goes On (1999).