Simpsons Co-Creator Sam Simon Dead at 59
He was 'the real creative force' behind the show, writer says
(Newser) A creative force is gone: Sam Simon, who influenced The Simpsons who gave away most of his millions to charity, died yesterday at age 59. He was diagnosed with colon cancer a few years ago, the New York Times reports. He didn't invent The Simpsons' charactersthat credit goes to cartoonist Matt Groeningbut he worked on the show's early years, hiring and inspiring writers, helping to add characters, and demanding that voice actors read together to make the show more life-like. "I'm here to tell you, the real creative force behind The Simpsons was Sam Simon," writer Ken Levine tells Variety . "The tone, the storytelling, the level of humorthat was all developed on Sams watch." But Simon had a reputation for being difficult, clashed with Groening, and left after four seasons.
The eight-time Emmy winner departed with a golden deal that made him tens of millions of dollars per year. So he gave "most of it away," he once said, to protecting animals, training dogs for the disabled, and getting vegan meals to low-income families. Married twiceonce to actor and poker player Jennifer Tillyhe also hosted a poker-playing show on Playboy TV. Born in the LA area in 1955, he started off as a TV writer, then went on to run Taxi and direct shows including the Carlin Show , Friends , and Anger Management , says the Hollywood Reporter . But he hit it big with The Simpsons a show he didn't believe would last. "Its a good lesson, isnt it?" he once told Stanford Magazine . "If you do something trying to make your friends laugh and that you can be proud of, you can also be successful."
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I know I should have posted this under entertainment, but he gave away most of his 10's of millions to helping dogs. He would send his staff people down to a dog shelter (usually a kill one) and tell them to buy him a dozen or so. They were brought up to his ranch in the hills above Los Angeles and he paid a fortune having them raised right and trained, including training service animals and "difficult" dogs. At any one time there would be forty of fifty dogs being cared for up there.
He was asked about it on a 60 minutes piece about why he was doing it and he said something along the lines of he already had more money then he could ever spend, so why not help dogs with the rest. The interviewer asked him about how much he spent doing it and he said he wasn't sure, but he knew it ran into the millions a yearand besides, he didn't keep track of it. Ya gotta respect that!
Oh he had a whole paid staff caring for and training the dogs in a really big and fancy kennel on his ranch. They would also be the ones to go to the pound for him, because he didn't think he could leave any of the dogs behind.
There are an amazing number of stars and celebrities who love animals and spend a lot of their money helping out with no kill shelters and such. The most famous I think is Betty White. She get's lots of stars involved and they have a big charity event at the Beverly Hills Hilton every year.