Neil Simon，猶太裔，美國百老匯最負盛名的劇作家，以擅長描寫笑中帶淚的喜劇而聞名，舞台劇、電視劇、百老匯歌舞劇等皆產量豐厚，得獎無數。我甚至在Neil Simon Festival的網頁上看到他被稱為現代的莎士比亞──以他的劇本為導演畢製的學妹告訴我，在美國，每年劇本搬演率的第一名劇作家是莎士比亞，第二名則是Neil Simon。

他的作品很多，也和四個女人結了五次婚，對象有舞者有演員，除了第一段婚姻維持了20年，之後和其他三個女人的婚姻大概都維持了八到十年左右。〈第四任老婆從1999年結婚至今〉

和第一任老婆生了兩個孩子，和第三任老婆又領養了一個孩子。

Simon的愛情和作品量一樣豐富啊，真是有他的。

會認識Neil Simon是在學弟妹的畢製《亂世家人》──翻譯自他的原作Briton Beach Memories.

這部自傳家庭戲共有三部曲，分別為：
Briton Beach Memories.
Biloxi Blues
Broadway Bound

其中前二部曲皆有被拍成電影。

劇本充滿濃厚的自傳味道，1937年，一個美國猶太家庭在政經動盪不安的時局下的悲喜交織，那悲和喜來自家人間的互動，和主角正在青春期中的成長──上半場展現了猶如香蕉成熟時的青澀迷戀，幽默爆笑，下半場則揭露了每個人的轉變和生命課題，溫馨而不灑狗血。同樣是家庭劇，Tennessee Williams則顯地過於激情和戲劇性，這或許是因為他生長於一個混亂不安的家庭。

寫實風格的劇作家寫出家庭劇的劇本時，是否有自傳成分存在其實是很容易辨認的；那其中的感情是如此溫厚，而且筆觸對劇中人物充滿詳細真實的描寫和強大的同情。以後有機會再舉例說明。

台灣上演過他的劇作有《再見女郎》〈果陀〉和《情聖正傳》〈表演工作坊〉。這是目前我所知道的。

以下是維基百科對他的介紹。

Neil Simon (born Marvin Neil Simon July 4, 1927 in The Bronx, New York City), is a Jewish American playwright and screenwriter. He’s one of the most reliable hitmakers in Broadway history, as well as one of the most performed playwrights in the world.

Simon briefly attended New York University in 1946. Two years later, he quit his job as a mailroom clerk in the Warner Brothers offices in Manhattan to write radio and television scripts with his brother Danny Simon. Their revues for Camp Tamiment in Pennsylvania in the early 1950s caught the attention of Sid Caesar, who hired the duo for his popular TV comedy series Your Show of Shows. (Simon later incorporated their experiences into his play Laughter on the 23rd Floor.) His work won him two Emmy Award nominations and the appreciation of Phil Silvers, who hired him to write for his eponymous sitcom in 1959.

In 1961, Simon’s first Broadway play, Come Blow Your Horn, opened at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, where it ran for 677 performances. Six weeks after its closing, his second production, the musical Little Me (starring former boss Caesar), opened to mixed reviews. Although it failed to attract a large audience, it earned Simon his first Tony Award nomination. Overall, he has garnered seventeen Tony nominations and won three. He has also won a Pulitzer Prize in drama for Lost In Yonkers.

His prolific output includes light comedies (Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple), darker, more autobiographical works (Chapter Two, the Eugene trilogy comprised of Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound) and books for musical comedies (Sweet Charity, Promises, Promises).

He has also written screenplays for over 20 films. These include adaptations of his own plays as well as original work, including The Out-of-Towners, Murder by Death and The Goodbye Girl. He has received four Best Screenplay Academy Award nominations.

Simon has been married five times, to dancer Joan Baim (1953-1973), actress Marsha Mason (1973-1981), twice to Diane Lander (1987-1988 and 1990-1998), and actress Elaine Joyce (1999-present). He is the father of Nancy and Ellen, from his first marriage, and Bryn, whom he adopted with Lander.

Simon has an honorary L.H.D. degree from Hofstra University and an honorary D.H.C. degree from Williams College. He is the owner of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre as well as the namesake of another Broadway house.

作品年表和得獎紀錄

Plays
•Come Blow Your Horn (1961)
•Little Me (1962)
•Barefoot in the Park (1963)
•The Odd Couple (1965)
•Sweet Charity (1966)
•The Star-Spangled Girl (1966)
•Plaza Suite (1968)
•Promises, Promises (1968)
•The Last of the Red Hot Lovers (1969)
•The Gingerbread Lady (1970)
•The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971)
•The Sunshine Boys (1972)
•The Good Doctor (1973)
•God’s Favorite (1974)
•California Suite (1976)
•Chapter Two (1977)
•They’re Playing Our Song (1979)
•I Ought to Be in Pictures (1980)
•Fools (1981)
•Brighton Beach Memoirs (1983)
•Biloxi Blues (1985)
•The Odd Couple (Female version, 1985)
•Broadway Bound (1986)
•Rumors (1988)
•Lost in Yonkers (1991)
•Jake’s Women (1992)
•The Goodbye Girl (1993)
•Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993)
•London Suite (1995)
•Proposals (1997)
•The Dinner Party (2000)
•45 Seconds from Broadway (2001)

Screenplays

•1963 - Come Blow Your Horn - Director: Bud Yorkin, screenplay by Norman Lear (with Frank Sinatra and Lee J. Cobb)
•1966 - After the Fox - Director: Vittorio DeSica (with Peter Sellers and Victor Mature)
•1967 - Barefoot in the Park - Director: Gene Saks (with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda)
•1968 - The Odd Couple - Director: Gene Saks (with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau)
•1969 - Sweet Charity - Director: Bob Fosse (with Shirley MacLaine, Chita Rivera and Sammy Davis Jr.)
•1970 - The Out-of-Towners - Director: Arthur Hiller (with Jack Lemmon)
•1971 - Plaza Suite - Director: Arthur Hiller (with Walter Matthau)
•1972 - The Last of the Red Hot Lovers - Director: Gene Saks (with Alan Arkin)
•1972 - The Heartbreak Kid - Director: Elaine May (with Cybill Shepard and Charles Grodin)
•1975 - The Prisoner of Second Avenue - Director: Melvin Frank (with Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft)
•1975 - The Sunshine Boys - Director: Herbert Ross (with Walter Matthau and George Burns)
•1976 - Murder by Death - Director: Robert Moore (with Walter Matthau, Truman Capote, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, David Niven and Peter Sellers)
•1977 - The Goodbye Girl - Director: Herbert Ross (with Richard Dreyfuss)
•1978 - The Cheap Detective - Director: Robert Moore (with Peter Falk, Louise Fletcher, Stockard Channing, Madeline Kahn, John Houseman, Nicol Williamson and Eileen Brennan)
•1978 - California Suite - Director: Herbert Ross (with Jane Fonda, Alan Alda, Maggie Smith, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby)
•1980 - Seems Like Old Times - Director: Jay Sandrich (with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase)
•1982 - I Ought To Be In Pictures - Director: Herbert Ross (with Walter Matthau)
•1982 - Sonny Boys - Director: Rolf von Sydow (with Carl-Heinz Schroth and Johannes Heesters)
•1983 - Max Dugan Returns - Director: Herbert Ross (with Matthew Broderick, Marsha Mason, Jason Robards, Kiefer Sutherland and Donald Sutherland)
•1984 - The Lonely Guy - Director: Arthur Hiller (with Steve Martin)
•1985 - The Slugger’s Wife - Director: Hal Ashby (with Michael O’Keefe and Rebecca De Mornay)
•1988 - Biloxi Blues - Director: Mike Nichols (with Matthew Broderick and Christopher Walken)
•1991 - The Marrying Man - Director: Jerry Rees (with Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin)
•1993 - Lost in Yonkers - Director: Martha Coolidge (with Richard Dreyfuss)
•1995 - The Sunshine Boys - Director: John Erman (with Woody Allen and Peter Falk)
•1998 - The Odd Couple II - Director: Howard Deutch (with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau)
•2001 - Sonny Boys - Director: Jörg Hube (with Werner Schneyder and Dieter Hildebrandt)
•2004 - The Goodbye Girl (with Patricia Heaton and Jeff Daniels for Turner Network Television)


Awards

•Tony Award for
oThe Odd Couple (1965, Best Author, Play)
oBiloxi Blues (1985, Best Play)
oLost in Yonkers (1991, Best Play)

•Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2006)

•Kennedy Center Honor (1995)

•Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Lost in Yonkers (1991)
•Drama Desk Award for Lost in Yonkers (1991, Outstanding New Play)

•American Comedy Award for lifetime achievement (1989)

•Golden Globe for The Goodbye Girl (1978, Best Screenplay - Motion Picture, Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy)

•Evening Standard Award for Barefoot in the Park (1967)

資料來源

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Simon