Actor-director Gene Saks, who teamed up with playwright and fellow New Yorker Neil Simon on hit Broadway and movie productions of such Simon comedies as “The Odd Couple” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” died March 28 at his home in East Hampton. He was 93 and the cause of death was pneumonia, according to his son Daniel.
Mr. Saks won three Tony Awards for directing. Among his hits were “Mame” (1966), starring Angela Lansbury and his then-wife Bea Arthur; “Half A Sixpence” (1965); and “I Love My Wife” (1977), as well as comedies including “Enter Laughing” (1963) and “Same Time, Next Year” (1975).
He began collaborating with Neil Simon in 1963 when he was asked by Mr. Simon to critique a tryout of “Barefoot in the Park.” The play, directed by Mike Nichols, was a huge Broadway hit in the 1960s, running for more than 1,500 performances.
Three years later Mr. Simon was preparing the film version of “Barefoot in the Park” and persuaded producer Hal Wallis to hire Mr. Saks as director of his first movie. The film, which starred Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, was a huge success.
Besides the famous trilogy of “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Biloxi Blues” and “Broadway Bound,” their work together on Broadway included “California Suite,” “Lost in Yonkers,” “Rumors,” “Jake’s Women” and the female version of “The Odd Couple.” Their other films were “The Odd Couple,” “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” and “Brighton Beach Memoirs.”
Mr. Saks had been an actor for 15 years, and his career was gaining momentum, when he moved on to directing after producer Morton Gottlieb had seen him direct a scene at the Actors Studio and was impressed.
Mr. Gottlieb asked Mr. Saks to direct “Enter Laughing.” It became a hit, elevating Alan Arkin to stardom.
By the mid-1970s Mr. Saks was one of Broadway’s most prominent directors, and at one point in 1977 he had three shows running concurrently on Broadway: “Same Time, Next Year,” “California Suite” and “I Love My Wife.”
It was the Cy Coleman-Michael Stewart musical “I Love My Wife” that brought Mr. Saks his first Tony. He went on to win two more for Neil Simon plays, “Brighton Beach Memoirs” in 1983 and “Biloxi Blues” in 1985.
Mr. Saks was born in 1921, in New York City, and grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, where his father ran a women’s wholesale shoe business. He wanted to become a basketball star, but changed his mind when he played the title role in “Charley’s Aunt,” a venerable old farce in which a young man disguises himself as a woman.
He graduated from Cornell University in 1943 and joined the Navy. Being in the service in wartime changed his mind about acting. “I realized that life can be short and you’d better do what you want to do,” he reasoned.
After serving for three years, he studied at the New School for Social Research and the Actors Studio.
Mr. Saks married Bea Arthur in 1950 and they had two sons, Matthew and Daniel, before the marriage ended in divorce. With his second wife, Karen, he had a daughter, Annabelle.
on Mar 30, 2015