Neil Simon, the author of iconic plays such as "The Odd Couple," "Barefoot in the Park" and "Lost in Yonkers," died Sunday, The Washington Post reported. He was 91.
According to TMZ, Simon died at 1 a.m. Sunday morning. His death was announced by his publicist, Bill Evans, The New York Times reported.
According to a statement,“Neil Simon the Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, died last night at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. The cause was complications from pneumonia.
“His wife, Elaine Joyce Simon, was at his bedside along with Mr. Simon’s daughters, Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon.”
Simon, who was born in The Bronx, won a Pulitzer Prize, three Tony Awards, a Kennedy Center Honor and a Golden Globe Award, The New York Post reported. IKn 1983 a Broadway theater was named after him, making him the only living playwright to have such an honor, the newspaper reported.
Time magazine once called Simon the “patron saint of laughter.”
Simon wrote dozens of plays, the scripts for five musicals and more than 20 screenplays, the Washington Post reported.
In the late 1960s and in the mid-1980s, there were four Simon shows playing simultaneously on Broadway, according to the Washington Post. In 1966, those plays were "Sweet Charity," "The Star-Spangled Girl," "The Odd Couple" and "Barefoot in the Park," according to Variety.
“The Odd Couple” also had success as a film and as a television series, while “Barefoot in the Park” also had a memorable run as a film.
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