Marvin Neil Simon (New York, United States b. on July 4 , 1927), is a writer, producer and screenwriter. It is one of the most profitable success in Broadway history, as well as one of the most interpreted writers in the world. It is the only writer to have four productions presented at the same time on Broadway and his works have been produced in dozens of languages.

Biography

It is the second son of Irving and Mamie Simon. The great depression brought hard times for the family. His father, clothing, clothing seller periodically away, leaving his wife to support her two children working at Gimbel’s Department store and relying on family and friends. After they divorced, Simon lived with relatives in Forest Hills, in the neighborhood of Queens in New York City. He and his older brother Danny Simon developed a very close relationship, and during his adolescence, he wrote and sold to comedians and radio programs.

Briefly attended New York University (1944-1945) and the University of Denver (1945-1946), to join the army, where he worked in the newspaper of the base. It was his brother who cause it to continue to write while remaining on the agenda of the United States air force reserves. Of being given low army, Simon got a job as clerk post offices in Manhattan, Warner Brothers thanks to his brother who worked in the advertising department. They began collaborating again, and from 1947 to 1956 worked as team writing comedy for television hits. Their journals for Tamiment Camp in Pennsylvania at the beginning of 1950s drew the attention of Sid Caesar, who hired the brothers for their popular comedy series Your Show of Shows (Simon later incorporated his experiences his oeuvre Laughter on the 23th Floor.) His work earned him two nominations at the Emmy Awards and appreciation of Phil Silvers, who hired him to write his eponymous sitcom in 1959.

In 1961, the first play Broadway of Simon’s Come Blow Your Horn, premiered at the Brooks Atkinson, where he had 678 representations theatre. Six weeks prior to its closure, his second production, the Little Me, musical attracted mixed reviews. Although it could not attract much public, won her first nomination Simon Tony Award. In general, he got seventy Tony nominations and won three. He has also won a Pulitzer Prize in drama by Lost in Yonkers.

His prolific output includes light, dark comedy, autobiographical works, and books for musical comedies. Simon has also written screenplays for more than twenty films, adaptations of his own works as well as original work including The Out-of-Towners, that includes Murder by Death and The Goodbye Girl. The has received four Academy Award nominations in the category of best screenplay.

Simon has a honorary doctorate in letters humanitarian from Hofstra University and a doctorate Honoris Causa from Williams College.

Works

* Come Blow Your Horn (1961)

* Little Me (1962)

* Barefoot in the Park (1963)

* The Odd Couple (1968)

* Sweet Charity (1966)

* The Star-Spangled Girl (1966)

* Plaza Suite (1968)

* Promises, Promises (1968)

* The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969)

* The Gingerbread Lady (1970)

* The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971)

* The Sunshine Boys (1972)

* The Good Doctor (1973)

* God’s Favorite (1974)

* California Suite (1976)

* Chapter Two (1977)

* They re Playing Our Song (1979)

* I Ought to be in Pictures (1980)

* Fools (1981)

* Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)

* Biloxi Blues (1985)

* The Odd Couple (Female version, 1985)

* Broadway Bound (1986)

* Rumors (1988)

* Lost in Yonkers (1991)

* Jake’s Women (1992)

* The Goodbye Girl (1993)

* Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993)

* London Suite (1995)

* Proposals (1997)

* The Dinner Party (2000)

* 45 Seconds from Broadway (2001)

Scripts

* 1963 – Come Blow Your Horn – Director: Bud Yorkin, screenplay by Norman Lear (with Frank Sinatra and Lee j. Cobb)

* 1966 – After the Fox-Director: Vittorio DeSica (with Peter Sellers and Victor Mature)

* 1967 – Barefoot in the Park-Director: Gene Saks (with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda)

* 1968 – The Odd Couple – Director: Gene Saks (with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau)

* 1969 – Sweet Charity – Director: Bob Fosse (with Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Sammy Davis Jr.)

* 1970 – The Out-of-Towners – Director: Arthur Hiller (with Jack Lemmon)

* 1971 – Plaza Suite – Director: Arthur Hiller (with Walter Matthau)

* 1972 – The Last of the Red Hot Lovers – Director: Gene Saks (with Alan Arkin)

* The Heartbreak Kid – Director: Elaine May (with Cybill Shepard and Charles Grodin)

* 1975 – The Prisoner of Second Avenue – Director: Melvin Frank (with Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft)

* The Sunshine Boys – Director: Herbert Ross (with Walter Matthau and George Burns)

* 1976 – Murder by Death-Director: Robert Moore (with Truman Capote, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, David Niven and Peter Sellers)

* 1977 – The Goodbye Girl – Director: Herbert Ross (with Richard Dreyfuss)

* 1978 – The Cheap Detective – Director: Robert Moore (with Peter Falk, Louise Fletcher, Stockard Channing, Madeline Kahn, John Houseman, Nicol Williamson and Eileen Brennan)

* California Suite – Director: Herbert Ross (with Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby)

* 1980 – Seems Like Old Times-Director: Jay Sandrich (with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase)

* 1982 – I Ought To Be In Pictures – Director: Herbert Ross (with Walter Matthau)

* Sonny Boys – Director: Rolf von Sydow (with Carl-Heinz Schroth and Johannes Heesters)

* 1983 – Max Dugan Returns – Director: Herbert Ross (with Matthew Broderick, Marsha Mason, Jason Robards, Kiefer Sutherland and Donald Sutherland)

* 1984 – The Lonely Guy – Director: Arthur Hiller (with Steve Martin)

* 1985 – The Slugger’s Wife – Director: Hal Ashby (with Michael O’Keefe and Rebecca De Mornay)

* 1988 – Biloxi Blues – Director: Mike Nichols (with Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken)

* 1991 – The Marrying Man – Director: Jerry Rees (with Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin)

* 1993 – Lost in Yonkers-Director: Martha Coolidge (with Richard Dreyfuss)

* 1995 – The Sunshine Boys – Director: John Erman (with Woody Allen and Peter Falk)

* 1998 – The Odd Couple II – Director: Howard Deutch (with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau)

* 2001 – Sonny Boys – Director: Jörg Hube (with Werner Schneyder and Dieter Hildebrandt)

* 2004 – The Goodbye Girl (with Patricia Heaton and Jeff Daniels to Turner Network Television)