Michael Tighe/Donaldson Collection, via Getty Images. “If the careers of the late Joe McCarthy and Dr. Goebbels have taught us anything, it is that the Big Lie only thrives on the proud silence of its victims.”, Mr. Simon was barred from some film screenings. They characterized some of his pronouncements as racist, misogynist, homophobic or grossly insensitive. John is preceded in death by his father and mother, Frank F. Simon and Hazel G. Simon, his sister, Trudy Heinsohn, his first wife, Julie Simon. “Heaven help us if they don’t. By 5 he was fluent in three languages, learning German and Hungarian at home and Serbo-Croatian in the streets of Belgrade. “I sincerely hope that science and scientists differ from science fiction and its practitioners,” he wrote. Send us a tip using our annonymous form. OBITUARY James "Jim" John Simon April 4, 1942 – March 19, 2021. Joshua “Junior” J. Simon lost his battle with depression at the tender age of 13 on Tuesday, June 9, 2020. “I do not like people who are a professional this, that or the other. In an era of vast cultural changes, Mr. Simon marshaled wide learning, insights and acid wit for largely negative reviews and essays that appeared in New York magazine for nearly 37 years, until his dismissal in 2005, and in The Hudson Review, The New York Times, Esquire, National Review, The New Leader and other publications. “To my misfortune,” Mr. Simon said, “I’m not homosexual, and therefore I’m a kind of odd man out in the theatrical world.”, Some critics responded. In “Movies Into Film: Criticism, 1967-1970” (1971), he wrote of the Beatles: “Particularly grubby are John Lennon and his worse half, Yoko Ono, who sits, smug and possessive, almost always within touching distance of him. Mr. Simon married Patricia Hoag, his second wife, in 1992 and lived with her in Manhattan. Professional writers, actors and singers are O.K., but I don’t like professional Jews, professional homosexuals, professional blacks, professional feminists, professional patriots. You fool, stay alive and annoy them!’ And that, in a sense, is my function in life, and my consolation. With hope in the resurrection, we commend to the Lord, Reverend John Leo Simon, who died Thursday, January 7, 2021, at the age of 74. John Leo Simon was born on June 18, 1946, in West Bend, Wis., to Linus and Florence (Miller) Simon. At the New York Film Festival in 1973, the actress Sylvia Miles dumped a plate of food on his head after he described her in print as a “party girl and gate crasher.”, “This incident was so welcomed by the Simon-hating press that the anecdote has been much retold,” Mr. Simon recalled. John Robert Simon passed away on July 14th, 2020 at the age of 66. He compared Liza Minnelli to a dog, and once told Time Out New York, “I don’t like ugly women. He will be missed and John did leave us with a lot of memories. Simon famously, or infamously, mocked Barbra Streisand’s nose, disparaged Diana Rigg’s build and said on Charlie Rose that New York Times critic Ben Brantley had an “affection” for “the homosexual play” because Brantley was gay. His attacks on actors were often meanspirited. We are sad to announce that on February 5, 2020 we had to say goodbye to John Simon (Cincinnati, Ohio). He was 94. It’s been so many things that you could feed the starving orphans of India or China with it.”. He was born February 9, 1924 in Fond du Lac a son of the late Edward S. and Nellie DeVelice Simon. Many readers delighted in what they considered Mr. Simon’s lofty and uncompromising tastes, and especially in his wicked judgments, which fell like hard rain on icons of culture: popular authors, Hollywood stars, rock and rap musicians, abstract artists and their defenders in critics’ circles, for whom he expressed contempt. Flouting, it would seem, even minimal sanitary measures, their hair looks like a Disneyland for the insect world, and their complexions appear to be portable bacterial cultures.”, Rival critics were frequent targets, even posthumously. And this steak tartare has since metamorphosed into every known dish from lasagna to chop suey. Le Clézio, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O’Connor, Ferenc Santa and B. Traven, and through the films of Antonioni, Bergman, Fellini or Kurosawa — but only “at their best.”, In The Times, he hailed the 1971 film “Hoa Binh,” a story of two Vietnamese children by the French cinematographer Raoul Coutard. “Why should I consider something art if I, a non-artist, could do it just as well?” he demanded on his blog, “Uncensored Simon,” in 2014. After service in the Army Air Forces in 1944 and 1945, he returned to Harvard and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1946 and a master’s in 1948. John Simon, whose biting, sometimes personal New York Magazine theater reviews drew devoted readers and withering criticism of their own, died yesterday at a hospital in Valhalla, New York. Leave your condolences to the family on this memorial page or send flowers to show you care. He took particular issue with what he called “the whole thumbs up, thumbs down critique Ebert practiced,” adding, “Except from the palsied or mentally defective, it takes no dexterity whatsoever, let alone art.”, On “Charlie Rose” in 2001, Mr. Simon accused The Times’s drama critic Ben Brantley of favoring plays by homosexuals because he was gay, a motivation Mr. Brantley rejected. In “Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Films” (1982), he recommended only 15 of the 245 films he discussed. His death, at Westchester Medical Center, was confirmed by his wife, Patricia Simon. Rest in Peace MY Friend. James “Jim” J. Simon, 78, of Evansville, IN, after many months of ups and downs, this jolly guy waved goodbye to this world and went whistling back to heaven on Friday, March 19, 2021. OBITUARY John P. Simon October 24, 1966 – August 6, 2011. But such praise was a rarity. John Leo BEAVER DAM - With hope in the resurrection, we commend to the Lord the Rev. I don’t like ugly women in parts that call for beauty.” In 1980, an ad in Variety signed by 300 people said his reviews were racist. John M. Simon, age 68, of Gibsonia, died peacefully on November 27, 2017 surrounded by his loving family. In 1941, the family moved to the United States, and Mr. Simon Americanized his name. John Simon, whose biting, sometimes personal New York Magazine theater reviews drew devoted readers and withering criticism of their own, died yesterday at a … Scott’s positive evaluation in The Times. Obituary Dorval John Simon, 94, a resident of Fond du Lac, passed away August 22, 2018 at Artisan Assisted Living Center, Fond du Lac. “Now the point is not whether Mencken is right or wrong, but that we have here a person perfectly willing to offend,” he wrote in “Acid Test” (1963), his first collection of essays. Funeral Home Services for John are being provided by Koepsell-Murray Funeral & Cremation Services. “She herself has retold it a thousand times. To Plant Memorial Trees … Interment will be held at Gethsemane Gardens following the funeral. A visitation for Father John … We want to hear from you! John Leo Simon was born on June 18, 1946 in West Bend, Wisconsin to Linus and Florence (Miller) Simon. But Mr. Simon was himself scorned by many writers, performers and artists, who called his judgments biased, unfair or downright cruel, and by readers and rival critics with whom he occasionally feuded in print. John Simon, 61, Carmel, died 10-10-2015. Simon, Rev. An advertisement signed by 300 people in Variety in 1980 called his reviews racist and vicious. He later learned French and English, and studied for a year at The Leys, a British private school at Cambridge. Arrangements: Balsamo-Cordovano Funeral Home, 15 Church St., Carmel (845) 225-2144. Simon was born on May 12, 1925, in Yugoslavia, and he and his family moved to the U.S. in 1941. He grew up in Belgrade before immigrating to the United States in 1941, aged 16, while on a tourist visa to join his father. After leaving the magazine, Simon wrote theater reviews for Bloomberg News until 2010, and wrote a column for Broadway.com from 2006-2008. Here is John Simon’s obituary. John leaves to mourn yet cherish his memories his Visitation for Junior will be held on Monday, June 15, 2020 at Cornerstone Funeral & Cremation Services, 135 Keller Blvd., Beaver Dam from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. John passed away in August 1973, at age 52. 616 Ridge Road at New Road, Monmouth Junction, NJ 08852 (732) 329-0990. Family and friends can light a candle as a loving gesture for their loved one. “My husband John Simon died last evening at Westchester Medical Center,” Hoag Simon wrote in part. He became a theater critic at the quarterly Hudson Review in 1960, and wrote for it off and on for two decades. He amended his surname at some point to "Simon". Copyright © 2021 Penske Business Media, LLC. John Simon, one of the nation’s most erudite, vitriolic and vilified culture critics, who illuminated and savaged a remarkable range of plays, films, literature and art works and their creators for more than a half-century, died on Sunday in Valhalla, N.Y. “I do not like uniforms,” Mr. Simon told the author Bert Cardullo in 2008. Brother of Janet Joseph Beerhalter, Mary … While English was not his native language, he also wrote incisive essays on American usage, notably in the 1980 book “Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and Its Decline.”, Born in Yugoslavia and educated at Harvard, Mr. Simon was an imperious arbiter who, unlike daily press critics, foraged widely over fields of culture and entertainment at will, devouring the Lilliputians with relish. Actress Betty Buckley wrote on Facebook today, “I loved John with all my heart and have abiding gratitude for his support of my work through all of the these years and his friendship. Loving father of John Lindsay Simon, Jr. and Paul Nicole Simon. Growing up in the Meridian Hills neighborhood, he attended Delaware Trails Elementary School and Northview Middle School prior to graduating from Park School in 1972. Victor John Simon January 7, 1951 - December 16, 2020 Obituary A graduate of St. Anthony's High School, class of 1966, John graduated from MCCC and attended Villanova University before receiving his bachelor of arts degree from St. … John Simon Obituary. He later wrote “Uncensored Simon” commentaries online and columns for The Weekly Standard and Bloomberg News. Mr. Simon was born in Bayonne, N.J., son of Charlotte and Marvin Simon, and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Rochester and a master's degree in Health Services Administration from Cornell University. She is his only immediate survivor. 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