Sam Simon

Samuel Michael Simon (June 6, 1955 – March 8, 2015) was an American television writer, producer and animal rights activist who co-developed the animated sitcom The Simpsons. While at Stanford University, Simon worked as a newspaper cartoonist and after graduating became a storyboard artist at Filmation Studios. Simon submitted a spec script for the sitcom Taxi, which was produced, and he later became the series' showrunner. Over the next few years, Simon wrote and produced for Cheers, It's Garry Shandling's Show and other programs, as well as writing the 1991 film The Super. Simon turned to fields outside television in his later years. He regularly appeared on Howard Stern's radio shows, managed boxer Lamon Brewster and helped guide him to the World Boxing Organization Heavyweight Championship in 2004, and was a regular poker player and six-time in the money finisher at the World Series of Poker. Simon founded the Sam Simon Foundation, which consists of a mobile veterinary clinic that goes into low-income neighborhoods offering free surgeries for cats and dogs several days per week, as well as a program that rescues and trains shelter dogs. He also funded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel MY Sam Simon. Simon was engaged at the time of his death, having been previously twice married, including to the actress Jennifer Tilly. Following a profile of Simon on 60 Minutes in 2007, CBS writer Daniel Schorn wrote in an online article that Simon was "perhaps the Renaissance man of the baffling, uncertain age we live in." Simon was diagnosed with terminal colorectal cancer in 2012 and given only three to six months to live. He bequeathed his $100 million estate to various charities that he actively supported during his lifetime. He died on March 8, 2015.