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Mark Twain prize awarded to Neil Simon

A lineup of comedy stars, including some whose careers he launched, paid tribute Sunday night to the 79-year-old playwright for his six decades of accomplishments.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Neil Simon can now add the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to his extensive list of honors.

A lineup of comedy stars, including some whose careers he launched, paid tribute Sunday night to the 79-year-old playwright for his six decades of accomplishments.

“He plucked me from obscurity,” said Jonathan Silverman, who portrayed a younger Simon in the autobiographical plays “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Broadway Bound.”

The ceremony, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, included clips from Simon’s body of work and salutes from stars like Jason Alexander, Matthew Broderick, Richard Dreyfuss, Nathan Lane, Robert Redford and Carl Reiner. Perhaps the only one not used to being onstage, Simon looked humble and nervous.

The Mark Twain Prize honors work that draws from the American experience. Many of Simon’s comedic Broadway and film productions are based on his New York roots and life experiences as a writer.

Simon, who has written more than 40 Broadway plays, has also won three Tony Awards, a Golden Globe and a Pulitzer — for 1991’s “Lost in Yonkers.” More than a dozen of his plays became movies, with four earning Academy Award nominations. He also received Kennedy Center Honors in 1995.

Simon is notorious for his incessant rewriting and editing.

“Neil wrote his brains out,” said Redford, who starred in the Broadway and film versions of “Barefoot in the Park. “[He] took out pages on the spot. If something didn’t work for him, it was gone.”

The title of Simon’s next work: “Rewrite.”

The annual Kennedy Center award ceremony will be broadcast on PBS on November 20.