Marvin Neil Simon was an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly film adaptations of his plays. He has received three Tony Awards, and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for four Academy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. He was awarded a Special Tony Award in 1975, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2006.
George Burns was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer, and one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century. He and his wife Gracie Allen appeared on radio, television and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen.
Eric Sykes was an English radio, stage, television and film writer, comedian, actor, and director whose performing career spanned more than 50 years. He frequently wrote for and performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Tommy Cooper, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus, and Johnny Speight. Sykes first came to prominence through his many radio credits as a writer and actor in the 1950s, most notably through his collaboration on The Goon Show scripts. He became a TV star in his own right in the early 1960s when he appeared with Hattie Jacques in several popular BBC comedy television series.
George Leslie Goebel was an American humorist, actor, and comedian. He was best known as the star of his own weekly comedy variety television series, The George Gobel Show, on NBC from 1954 to 1959 and on CBS from 1959 to 1960. He was also a familiar panelist on the NBC game show Hollywood Squares.
Arthur William Matthew Carney was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best known for his role as Ed Norton on the sitcom The Honeymooners (1955–1956).
Anthony Leonard Randall was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. In a career spanning six decades, Randall received six Golden Globe Award nominations and six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning one Emmy.
Johnny Speight was an English television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.
Garry Kent Marshall was an American filmmaker and actor. He started his career in the 1960s writing for The Lucy Show and The Dick Van Dyke Show before he developed Neil Simon's 1965 play The Odd Couple for television in 1970. He gained fame for creating Happy Days (1974–1984), Laverne and Shirley (1976–1983), and Mork and Mindy (1978–1982). He is also known for directing The Flamingo Kid (1984), Overboard (1987), Beaches (1988), Pretty Woman (1990), Runaway Bride (1999), and the family films The Princess Diaries (2001) and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). He also directed the romantic comedy ensemble films Valentine's Day (2010), New Year's Eve (2011), and Mother's Day (2016).
Jack Klugman was an American actor of stage, film, and television.
Lowell Ganz is an American screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is the long-time writing partner of Babaloo Mandel.
Screen Gems is an American brand name used by Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, a subsidiary of Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. It has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation, initially as a cartoon studio, then a television studio, and later on as a film studio. The label currently serves as a film production and distribution label that specializes in genre films, mainly horror.
The Birds and the Bees is a 1956 screwball comedy film with songs, starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor and David Niven. A remake of Preston Sturges' 1941 film The Lady Eve, which was based on a story by Monckton Hoffe, the film was directed by Norman Taurog and written by Sidney Sheldon. The costumes for the film were designed by Edith Head.
The Odd Couple is an American sitcom television series broadcast from September 24, 1970 to March 7, 1975 on ABC. The show, which stars Tony Randall as Felix Unger and Jack Klugman as Oscar Madison, was the first of several sitcoms developed by Garry Marshall for Paramount Television. The series is based on the 1965 play The Odd Couple written by Neil Simon, which was also adapted into the 1968 film The Odd Couple. The story examines two divorced men, Oscar and Felix, who share a Manhattan apartment and whose opposite personalities inevitably lead to conflict and laughter.
David Freeman was a British film and television writer, working chiefly in comedy.
The Odd Couple is a 1968 American comedy film directed by Gene Saks, produced by Howard W. Koch and written by Neil Simon, based on his 1965 play. It stars Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau as two divorced men, neurotic neat-freak Felix Ungar and fun-loving slob Oscar Madison, who decide to live together.
Bob Daily is an American television producer and screenwriter.
Margaret Frances "Peg" Lynch was an American writer, actress, and creator of the radio and television sitcoms Ethel and Albert, The Couple Next Door, and The Little Things in Life. She created, wrote, starred in, and owned her own sitcom; she retained that ownership throughout her life. Lynch wrote a total of nearly 11,000 scripts for radio and television.
Everett Greenbaum was an American television and film writer and actor who contributed to such shows as The Andy Griffith Show, M*A*S*H, Love American Style, The Real McCoys, Sanford and Son, and The George Gobel Show. Greenbaum was a co-writer with Jim Fritzell of Mister Peepers an important early television show created by David Swift and starring Wally Cox. He wrote the Hollywood feature film Good Neighbor Sam, as well as a series of films starring Don Knotts that included The Shakiest Gun in the West, The Reluctant Astronaut, and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.
Robert "Bob" Brunner was an American screenwriter, film producer, and television producer. He frequently collaborated in film and television with Garry Marshall, the creator of Happy Days. Brunner is credited with creating the "Fonzie" nickname for Henry Winkler's character, Arthur Fonzarelli, on Happy Days. He also created one of Fonzie's key catchphrases, "Sit on it."
Jerome Coopersmith is an American dramatist known for television, theater, and his work as a professor of screenplay writing. Working in the television industry since 1947, Coopersmith has authored more than 100 television scripts for anthology dramas, episodic series and television movies and specials. His television work includes "Johnny Jupiter" (1953-1954), "Armstrong Circle Theater" (1955-1963), "Hawaii Five-O" (1967-1976), and "Streets of San Francisco" (1973), and the holiday classics "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" (1974) and "An American Christmas Carol" (1979). Coopersmith's theatrical plays span Broadway, off-Broadway, and regional productions. His Broadway musical, "Baker Street" (1965), based on the stories of Sherlock Holmes, earned him a Tony Nomination as Author of Best Musical. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Mystery Writers of America, and is a current member and past officer of the Writers Guild of America, East On November 12, 2019, at age 94, Coopersmith was honored with the highest distinction of Chevalier, or Knight, in the National Order of the French Legion of Honor in recognition of his service to France in World War II.
