New York – Ron Simons was an actor who became a powerful movie and stage producer, garnering four Tony Awards and having multiple films chosen for the Sundance Film Festival. He was sixty-three.
SimonSays Entertainment, his production firm with headquarters in New York, announced Ron’s passing on Wednesday but provided no other information.
The production firm announced on Facebook, “It is with heavy hearts that we share the unexpected passing of our beloved, blessed, and highly favored friend, Ronald Keith Simons.”
Tony Award-Winning Broadway Producer Ron Simons Dies At 63
Producing “Porgy and Bess” (with Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald), “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (with Jefferson Mays), “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” (with Sigourney Weaver), and “Jitney” (with John Douglas Thompson) brought Ron Tony Awards.
He also co-produced “Hughie,” which starred Forest Whitaker, “The Gin Game,” which starred Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” an all-Black version of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the revival of “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf,” and the original “Thoughts of a Colored Man.”
Following George Floyd’s passing and the first full season since Ron was happy to see Broadway deliver one of its most varied Tony slates.
Tony Award-Winning Broadway Producer Ron Simons Dies At 63
“I have never seen so many people of color represented in all Tony Award categories,” he said to The Associated Press. That impressed and lifted me.
Filmwise, Ron produced “Night Catches Us,” starring Kerry Washington, Anthony Mackie, and Wendell Pierce; “Gun Hill Road,” starring Esai Morales and Judy Reyes; “Blue Caprice,” starring Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond; and “Mother of George,” starring Danai Gurira.
After graduating from Columbia College with a bachelor’s degree, Columbia Business School with an MBA, and the University of Washington with an MFA, Ron worked for Microsoft as a product manager before deciding to shift his path and go into entertainment.
Tony Award-Winning Broadway Producer Ron Simons Dies At 63
As an actor, he debuted at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Seattle Repertory Theatre.
Along with small screen roles in “The Resident,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” and “Law & Order: SVU,” he starred in the movies “27 Dresses” and “Mystery Team.”
SOURCE – (AP)
