SIMON, (MARVIN) NEIL

born July 4, 1927, New York City 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; filmed 1967), The Odd Couple (1965; filmed 1968), The Star-Spangled Girl (1966), Plaza Suite (1968; filmed 1971), Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969; filmed 1972), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971; filmed 1975), The Sunshine Boys (1972; filmed 1975), California Suite (1976; filmed 1978), Chapter Two (1977), I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980), and a trilogy of autobiographical plays consisting of Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983), Biloxi Blues (1985), and Broadway Bound (1986). Simon wrote the screenplays for the motion-picture adaptations of his plays as well as screenplays for a number of original motion pictures. He also wrote the books for the musicals Little Me (1962), Sweet Charity (1966), Promises, Promises (1968), and They're Playing Our Song (1979). Simon's plays deal with the everyday lives and domestic problems of ordinary middle-class people. He examines his characters' marital and other dilemmas and, for comic effect, plays up the incongruity of their situations.