Ron Simons, an actor and four-time Tony Award-winning producer, has died. He was 63.
His manufacturing firm SimonSays Leisure shared that Simons died Wednesday. His reason for demise wasn’t instantly accessible.
“It’s with heavy hearts that we share the surprising passing of our beloved, blessed, and extremely favored pal, Ronald Keith Simons. Funeral particulars can be forthcoming,” the manufacturing firm wrote in a press release on Fb.
Born in Detroit on Nov. 30, 1960, Simons didn’t initially pursue a profession in performing and theater. After graduating from Columbia Enterprise College in 1989 with an MBA in advertising and worldwide enterprise, he began his skilled profession at Microsoft as a product supervisor in San Francisco.
It wasn’t till years later, at 39 years previous, that he determined to give up his job and observe his desires in leisure.
He obtained his MFA in performing from the College of Washington and finally moved from California to New York, the place he joined the Classical Theatre of Harlem and began reserving visitor roles in films and TV exhibits.
A few of his onscreen credit all through the years embrace Jonny Zero, Legislation & Order: Prison Intent, 27 Clothes, Gun Hill Street, Legislation & Order, The Defenders, Daredevil, The Resident and Then Got here You.
Nonetheless, Simons determined to department out to producing when he wasn’t touchdown as many performing roles as he would have preferred. He based SimonSays Leisure in 2009.
His first producing job was on the 2010 movie Night time Catches Us, starring Kerry Washington and Anthony Mackie. As for theater, he started with the 2012 revival of Porgy and Bess, starring Audra McDonald and Norm Lewis.
Simons went on to co-produce a number of Broadway exhibits all through his profession, profitable Tony Awards for Porgy and Bess, A Gentleman’s Information to Love and Homicide, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, and Jitney.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Simons determined to make one other bounce, this time to steer producer with 2021’s Ideas of a Coloured Man and the 2022 revival of for coloured women who’ve thought-about suicide/when the rainbow is enuf.
“We’re heartbroken to study of our pal and former trustee Ron Simon’s passing,” Classical Theatre of Harlem shared in a press release. “Our ideas are together with his household. Ron has left behind an unmatched legacy on Broadway and past. We’ll at all times bear in mind his kindness and unimaginable expertise that impressed so many.”