Danny Simon

Daniel Simon (December 18, 1918, The Bronx, New York – July 26, 2005, Portland, Oregon) was an American television writer and comedy teacher. He was the inspiration for the character of Felix Unger in his brother Neil Simon's play, The Odd Couple.

Biography The older brother of playwright Neil Simon, he wrote comedy with his brother in the 1940s and 1950s.

As a writing team the brothers wrote for Buddy Hackett, Jan Murray and Phil Silvers and also wrote for radio and television shows such as Broadway Open House, The Red Buttons Show, The Jackie Gleason Show and Your Show of Shows until 1954 when Neil left the partnership to write plays.

Danny Simon also directed several Off-Broadway productions of his brother's plays and was the inspiration for characters in various Neil Simon plays such as Come Blow Your Horn, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, Chapter Two, Brighton Beach Memoirs and Broadway Bound, leading him to joke “There have been more plays written about me than about Abraham Lincoln, Joan of Arc and Julius Caesar all put together." The couple had two children, Michael Howard Simon and Valerie Jeanne Simon (died 2009).

Danny Simon died of heart failure in 2005 at age 86 at the Robison Jewish Health Center in Portland, Oregon. He had also suffered a stroke.