Larry Simon Gelbart died he was 81

Larry Simon Gelbart^{[1] died he was 81 . Gelbart was an American comedy writer and dramatist.}

(February 25, 1928 – September 11, 2009)

^{Gelbart was born in Chicago to Jewish immigrants Harry Gelbart ("a barber since his half of a childhood in Latvia")[2] and Frieda Sturner, who hailed from Dombrowa, Poland.}

^{Gelbart began as a writer at the age of sixteen for Danny Thomas' radio show during the 1940s and also wrote for Jack Paar and Bob Hope. In the 1950s, he worked in television for Sid Caesar on Caesar's Hour, along with writers Neil Simon, Mel Brooks, Woody Allen, and Carl Reiner. In 1972, Gelbart was one of the main forces behind the creation of the television series M*A*S*H, writing and producing many episodes until leaving after the fourth season. M*A*S*H earned Gelbart an Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and went on to considerable commercial and critical success.}

^{Gelbart in 1982 co-wrote the screenplay for Tootsie. He also wrote the screenplays for Oh, God!, which starred George Burns, Blame It on Rio with Michael Caine and Demi Moore and the 2000 film, Bedazzled with Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser.}

^{Gelbart wrote the long-running Broadway musical farce A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Burt Shevelove and Stephen Sondheim in 1962 and he collaborated with Shevelove on the screenplay for The Wrong Box (1966), a British comedy film.}

^{His Broadway credits include the musical City of Angels, which won him the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical and an Edgar Award, and the Iran-contra satire Mastergate, as well as Sly Fox. In the early 1960s, he uttered the now-classic line, "If Hitler is alive, I hope he's out of town with a musical." TV credits include cable TV-movie Barbarians at the Gate.}

^{In 1997, Gelbart published his memoir, Laughing Matters: On Writing M*A*S*H, Tootsie, Oh, God! and a Few Other Funny Things.[2]}

^{Gelbart was a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post, and also was a regular participant on the alt.tv.mash Usenet newsgroup as "Elsig".}

^{Gelbart, who was diagnosed with cancer in June and died at his Beverly Hills home on Sept. 11, 2009. His wife of 53 years, Pat Gelbart, told that after being married for so long, "we finished each other's..." She declined to specify the type of cancer he had. [3] [1]}