NEW YORK (CNN) — Neil Simon, the playwright and screenwriter whose indestructible comedies — including “The Odd Couple,” “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Sunshine Boys” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs” — made him one of the most successful writers in American history, has died.
He was 91.
The cause of death was complications with pneumonia, according to his publicist, Bill Evans. Simon died around 1 a.m. Sunday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.
A member of the famed “Your Show of Shows” writing staff for Sid Caesar, Simon was an entertainment mainstay for more than six decades. Starting with his first Broadway success, “Come Blow Your Horn” (1961), there was seldom a time when a Neil Simon work couldn’t be found on stage or screen (or, occasionally, television).
At one point, in the late 1960s, he had four shows on Broadway at once.
Even a partial list of his works summons the comic highlights of late 20th-century American theater: “Barefoot in the Park.” “The Odd Couple.” “Sweet Charity.” “Plaza Suite.” “The Last of the Red Hot Lovers.” “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” “Brighton Beach Memoirs.” “Lost in Yonkers.” “Laughter on the 23rd Floor.”
