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Marvin Neil Simon was born on July 4, 1927, in the Bronx. -
He was very shy in high school and spent much of his youth watching comedy acts in movie theaters. He said that he became a comedy writer in an effort to block out his painful childhood. -
At age 15, he received his first writing paycheck for doing funny sketches for a department store party. -
To obtain money for college, Niel enlisted in the Army Air Force Reserve at New York University. -
In the early 1950s, Neil and Danny Simon joined the all-star writing cast of the Sid Caesar television series Your Show of Shows by the middle of the decade the brothers had parted ways, but Neil Simon continued. -
Niel Simon began writing plays by collaborating with his brother. -
Niel Simon married his first wife out of 5 in 1953. Their relationship lasted for 20 years. -
Niel Simon had his first daughter, Ellen Simon. He had Ellen with his first wife Joan Baim. -
In 1961, at age 34, his first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn with Frank Sinatra, ran for 678 performances. -
This romantic comedy stage play helped establish the Simon as a star in his field, a reputation that was cemented with his instant classic about mismatched roommates. -
Simon earned a Tony Award for a famous play known as "Odd Couple" in 1965. -
Niel scored major hits with Promises, Promises in (1968), a musical -
Marsha Mason was Niel Simons second wife for 10 years. (1973-1983) -
Simon was nominated for a Golden Globe-Best Screenplay-Motion Picture three times: in 1973 -
Chapter two talks about Simons grief of losing his wife and getting to know a new person who later became his new wife. -
The Heartbreak Kid (directed by Elaine May); in 1976 for The Sunshine Boys (directed by Herbert Ross) -
This play is another one of the many that Earned Simon an award nomination as many other plays were also written during this time that helped him succeed. -
In 1978 for The Goodbye Girl, which he won. Directed by Herbert Ross, The Goodbye Girl collected four Golden Globes – best screenplay, best actor-comedy of musical -
After divorcing Marsha Mason after a ten year relationship, Simon married Diane Lander twice. During this time Niel Simon also adopted his daughter Bryn. -
Lost in Yonkers (1991; film 1993), won both a Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for best play. -
This Autobiography was about Niel Simon falling in love with theatre and his first wife Joan -
This Autobiography talks about his present life after his wife's death. The stories focus on the career of Neil and his second relationship with Marsha Mason. -
Niel simon nominated for 17 Tony Awards -
Niel met Eliane Joyce when she was working on a film "Nieman Marcus". -
His wife, Elaine, said that he was already having kidney problems when she married him when he was 72, and that his disease progressed dramatically in the early years of their marriage. -
In 2006 he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. -
Simon died around 1 a.m. Sunday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. p