Celebrated US playwright Neil Simon has died aged 91 in his native New York City of complications from pneumonia, representatives announced.
Simon gained international fame in the 1960s for stage and screen comedies including The Odd Couple and Barefoot In The Park.
In 1991 he won the Pulitzer Prize For Drama with Lost in Yonkers.
“Some say he’s the most successful playwright since Shakespeare,” Barefoot star Robert Redford once said.
Simon was a prolific author. averaging at least one play a year for much of his career, and his work included the hit musicals Sweet Charity and They’re Playing Our Song.
His wife, Elaine Joyce Simon, was at his deathbed along with his daughters, Ellen Simon and Nancy Simon, in New York-Presbyterian Hospital, his representatives said.
Musical theatre star Elaine Paige and actor Josh Gad were among those tweeting tributes to the author.
What works made him famous?
Some of the greatest American actors of the time starred in films of his plays, notably Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon as The Odd Couple (1968).
In the comedy, Matthau played messy, poker-playing sports journalist Oscar Madison sharing an apartment with house-proud TV news writer Felix Ungar (Lemmon), as the two dealt with divorcing their wives.
Fans paid tribute to The Odd Couple and his other works on social media.
Source: BBC