Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Ron Simons has died at the age of 63

NEW YORK (AP) – Ron Simons, the actor who became an completed film and stage producer, winning 4 Tony Awards and having several movies chosen at the Sundance Film Festival, has died. He was 63 years old.

SimonSays Entertainment, his New York production company, said Simons died on Wednesday but didn’t provide a cause or other details.

“It is with heavy hearts that we share the unexpected death of our beloved, blessed and extremely valued friend, Ronald Keith Simons” – Production Company he wrote in an announcement on Facebook.

Simons won Tonys for producing “Porgy and Bess” with Norm Lewis and Audra McDonald, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” starring Jefferson Mays, “Vanya and Sonia, Masha and Spike” with Sigourney Weaver and ” Jitney,” with John Douglas Thompson.

He also co-produced (*63*) with Forest Whitaker and “The Gin Game” starring Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones, “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” an all-black production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” a reissue of the novel “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf,” and the original work ” He thinks about the coloured man.”

In 2022, after the first full season since the death of George Floyd reignited the conversation about race and representation in America, Simons was glad to see Broadway offer one of the most diverse Tony offerings up to now.

“I can guarantee you I have never seen so many people of color represented in all the categories of the Tony Awards,” he told The Associated Press. “I was encouraged and impressed by that.”

On the film side, Simons 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 George” with Danai Gurira.

Simons, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia College, an MBA from Columbia Business School and an MFA from the University of Washington, was a product manager at Microsoft when he decided to vary his life and pursue a profession in the entertainment industry.

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He began as an actor, performing in regional theaters including the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival and Classical Theater of Harlem.

He appeared in the movies “27 Dresses” and “Mystery Team”, in addition to on the small screen in “The Resident”, “Law & Order”, “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order: SVU”. “