biography
| name: |
Simon, (Marvin) Neil
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1927– )
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| biography:
| Playwright, born in New York City, New York, USA. After fulfilling his obligation to the Air Force Reserve in 1946, he took a clerical job with Warner Brothers in New York, but soon began writing comic material for radio and television personalities (1947–60). With his brother, Danny Simon, he wrote sketches for Broadway shows such as Catch a Star (1955) and New Faces of 1956. His first full-length comedy, Come Blow Your Horn (1961) was a success, but it was The Odd Couple (1965) that launched his career as late-20th-c America's most successful writer of comedies. Year after year he filled theatres, and eventually the television screen and cinemas, with his string of popular comedies and musicals, including Sweet Charity (1966) and Promises, Promises (1969), and in 1966 he had four hit shows on Broadway. At the same time, he became increasingly dissatisfied at hearing himself dismissed as a gag-writer, and starting with The Gingerbread Lady (1970), he began to deal with more serious themes; with Chapter Two (1977) he became autobiographical, and with Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983) he began a series of dramas drawing on his youthful years. He was finally given serious recognition with the Pulitzer for Lost in Yonkers (1991). |
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