Marvin Neil Simon was born the fourth of July1927 in the Bronx, New York, the second son of Irving Simon, a Jewish traveling salesman and his wife Mamie. He grew up in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood. He was not a very good student and was eager to leave his all-boys high school to fight World War II. While attending New York University as an engineering student, Simon served in the Air Force Reserve where he was the Sports Editor for the Rev-Meter from 1945-1946 until fulfillment of his obligation at which time he took a position with Warner Brothers as a mailroom clerk. Following his discharge in 1946, he began writing scripts with his brother, Danny, for radio and television personalities. The first of their jobs, paying fifty-dollars-a-week was writing for Goodman's CBS radio show. Their sketches for Phil Silvers, Gary Moore, Jerry Lewis and Broadway shows such as Catch a Star (1955) and New Faces of 1956 contributed to Neil's wide popularity. The siblings parted ways and Simon went solo. His early days as a playwright were filled with fears of failure. "In the beginning, it terrorized me, because I knew if my plays failed it meant going to California and making a living in television for the rest of my life." [Interview With Neil Simon, http://www.titlepage.comcgi-local/shop.pl/page=simon.htm] His first full-length comedy, Come Blow Your Horn (1961), ran for over six hundred performances and was a success but it was the Odd Couple (1965) that truly launched his career. He married his first wife, Joan Baim (dancer) in 1953.
             In 1957 and 1959 he won Emmy awards for his contributions to both The Sid Caesar Show and The Phil Silvers Show. Neil joined the Dramatists Guild and
             The Writers Guild of America and purchased his own New York theatre, The Eugene O'Neill Theatre. In September of 1973 Joan passed away and Simon married Marsha Mason (actress). They divorced in 1982 and...