Claimed by colon cancer at 59

Sam Simon, who co-created The Simpsons, has died at the age of 59. He had been battling colon cancer.

Simon won seven Emmy awards for his work as a writer, director and executive producer for the show, which he helped define when working on it for its first four seasons from 1989.

He is credited with helping populate Springfield with its cast of supporting characters – but repeatedly clashed with the main animator, Matt Groening, about the direction of the show. 

Nonetheless, Simon retained a share of the show’s earnings, which gave him an estimated income of £15million a year. After his diagnosis, he said he wanted to donate all of his fortune to charity, and was particularly generous to animal welfare causes.

Fellow Simpsons producer Al Jean, tweeted that Simon was ‘a great man; I owe him everything. [He] taught me everything about animation writing, and even more about life.’

Simon had also worked as a writer on Taxi, Cheers and The Drew Carey Show.

Carey tweeted: ‘Sam was such a great friend to me. I was blessed to have shared so much happiness with him. RIP.’

And Larry Sanders star Garry Shandling ‏said: ‘Sam Simon wrote on my first series, IGSS [It’s Garry Shandling’s Show]. Sam was like a hilarious hurricane in the writer's room. His force will be missed.’

Published: 9 Mar 2015