To Absent Friends - Carole Shelley

 Carole Shelley

1939-2018

British born actress Carole Shelley died last Friday at the age of 79.  Shelley was best known as half of the Pigeon Sisters  in Neil Simon's classic comedy, "The Odd Couple".  She played Gwendolyn Pigeon who lived with her sister Cecily (played by Monica Evans) in an apartment upstairs from Oscar and Felix.  They originated the roles in 1965 when the play debuted on Broadway, went on to reprise the roles in the 1968 film adaptation, and even appeared in four episodes of the TV series in its first season.

Shelley may be best known as Gwendolyn Pigeon, but her Broadway career was a full one.  She won a Tony Award in 1979 for her role in "The Elephant Man", and was nominated for Tonys on three other occasions.  She was an original cast member of the long running musical "Wicked", she played Madame Morrible, and she appeared most recently on Broadway in 2013 in "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder".  She has 49 movie and TV acting credits listed in IMDB, including the outstanding "Quiz Show" (1995) and several voice over roles in Disney animated films.

I remember seeing a play at the Pittsburgh Public Theater in 2006 called "The Secret Letters of Jackie and Marilyn".  It was essentially a two woman play with actresses portraying Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe.  However, there was a third woman in the play who served as sort of Narrator/Greek Chorus, and I recall that her voice sounded SO familiar as I was watching the play.  When I checked the Program at intermission I learned that it was Carole Shelley, most famously known as one-half of Neil Simon's Pigeon Sisters.  I thought that that was very cool to see her in a play in Pittsburgh forty years after first seeing her in the movie version of "The Odd Couple".  And it was only today, after reading her obituary, that I realized what a full and active career she had.

RIP Carole Shelley.

The Pigeon Sisters

Carole Shelley and Monica Evans

They remained close friends all of their lives.

To Absent Friends - Neil Simon

Neil Simon

1927 - 2018

A true American cultural treasure (he was even born on the 4th of July), Neil Simon, died today at the age of 91.  Just two days ago in writing about the movie, "The Sunshine Boys", on this blog, I wrote the following...."Let's face it, trying to name your favorite Neil Simon play/movie is like trying to name your favorite Sinatra or Beatles song.  There is just too much rich material from which to choose to come up with a definitive favorite."

Simon was a comedy writer for one of the earliest television classics, Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows", where he worked with such great writers as Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, and Larry Gelbart.  He went on to become one of the greatest playwrights in American history.  Thirty-three of his players were produced on Broadway, and they include undeniable classics such as "The Odd Couple", "Barefoot in the Park", "Sweet Charity", "Plaza Suite", and the aforementioned "The Sunshine Boys".  At two different points in time, the late 1960's and the mid 1990's, there were four Simon plays running simultaneously on Broadway.

He is also credited with 28 different movie screenplays.  

He has won two Tony Awards, an Emmy, and a Pulitzer Prize.  He is a Kennedy Center Honoree and the winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American humor.

I have seen three shows on Broadway in my life, and I am thrilled that first one that I saw was a Neil Simon play, "Plaza Suite", in 1969 when my Dad took me to New York with him on a business trip as a high school graduation celebration.

The wonderful thing about people like Neil Simon is that even when they die, they continue to live on.  Neil Simon's plays will continue to be staged professionally, in local theaters, and in high schools for as long as the English language will continue to exist, and they will always - ALWAYS - be funny.  

Is there a better gift for anyone to give the public?

RIP Neil Simon.

A Follow Up on Mike Nichols

I just want to make an addendum to my "Absent Friends" post of three days ago about the death of Mike Nichols.

First, a correction.  Nichols won nine Tony Awards, not six. Wow.

As for the addendum, four of those Tony Awards were for directing the following plays:

• Barefoot in the Park
• The Odd Couple
• Plaza Suite
• Prisoner of Second Avenue

What do those played have in common? They were all write by the incomparable Neil Simon.

This raises the question: Could  there ever have been greater convergence of talent in the American theater than the collaborations of Neil Simon and Mike Nichols?