Marvin Neil Simon (July 4, 1927 – August 6, 2018) was an American writer for stage and screen, and one of the leading figures of late-20th-century American theatre.
He grew up in New York City during The Great Depression; both that time and that place were strong influences on his plays. After serving in the Air Force Reserve, he started his career by writing scripts for radio and television. Come Blow Your Horn was his first Broadway play, staged in 1961. He followed that up with Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple, both big hits which were adapted into Hollywood films—The Odd Couple actually became a franchise when it was further adapted into several television sitcoms.
He mostly wrote his own stories, but occasionally he adapted other source material, such as the play Sweet Charity, which was an adaptation of Federico Fellini movie Nights of Cabiria. Neil Simon plays were a fixture of Broadway in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s. In the latter decade he began mining his own life for material, authoring semi-autobiographical plays like Biloxi Blues and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lost in Yonkers.
Simon adapted several of his plays for the screen. He also wrote a few original screenplays, such as The Out-of-Towners, Murder by Death, and The Goodbye Girl; the latter getting a Musical Screen-to-Stage Adaptation. His last play, Rose's Dilemma, ran in 2003.
Neil Simon on TV Tropes:
- Barefoot in the Park (1963)
- The Odd Couple (1965) (also the screenplay for the 1968 movie)
- Sweet Charity (1966)
- After the Fox (1966) (English screenplay)
- Promises, Promises (1968)
- The Out-of-Towners (1970) (original screenplay)
- Plaza Suite (1971) (screenplay based on Simon's 1968 play)
- The Heartbreak Kid (1972) (adapted screenplay)
- The Sunshine Boys (1975) (screenplay based on Simon's 1972 play)
- Murder by Death (1976) (original screenplay)
- The Goodbye Girl (1977) (original screenplay)
- California Suite (1978) (screenplay based on Simon's 1976 play)
- The Cheap Detective (1978) (original screenplay)
- Fools (1981)
- Max Dugan Returns (1983) (original screenplay)
- The Lonely Guy (1984) (adapted screenplay)
- Biloxi Blues (1988) (screenplay based on Simon's 1985 play)
- Rumors (1988)
- Lost in Yonkers (1991)
- The Marrying Man (1991) (original screenplay)
- The Odd Couple II (1998) (original screenplay)
