By MARK KENNEDY, AP Entertainment WriterNEW YORK (AP) — Playwright Neil Simon, a master of comedy whose laugh-filled hits such as “The Odd Couple,” ″Barefoot in the Park” and his “Brighton Beach” trilogy dominated Broadway for decades, has died. Many of his plays were adapted into movies and one, “The Odd Couple,” even became a popular television series. The previous year had seen a popular revival of “The Odd Couple,” reuniting Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick after their enormous success in “The Producers” several years earlier. It was to have run in repertory with Simon’s “Broadway Bound,” which was also canceled. Simon was born Marvin Neil Simon in New York and was raised in the Bronx and Washington Heights.

Source: Huffington Post August 26, 2018 15:45 UTC