Stage and Motion Picture Director, Actor. He experienced enormous success as a director of Broadway productions and later made the transition to film. He will perhaps be best remembered for his collaborations with writer Neil Simon. Born Jean Michael Saks, into a middle-class Jewish home, his father was the proprietor of a women's shoe business. He was raised in Northern New Jersey and attended Cornell University, prior to his service with the United States Navy during World War II. He was a participant in the Normandy Beach Invasion. Following his return home, he enrolled at the New School for Social Research and later the Actors Studio. He initiated his acting career in off-Broadway plays and went on to perform in such noted Broadway productions as "South Pacific" (1955), "A Shot in the Dark" (1961 to 1962) and "A Thousand Clowns" (1962 to 1963). He marked his stage directing debut with the Carl Reiner novel-based "Enter Laughing" (1963 to 1964) and helmed the plays "Half a Sixpence" (1965), "Mame" (1966, which co-starred his then-wife Beatrice Arthur), "Same Time, Next Year" (1975), "Broadway Bound" (1987) and "Lost in Yonkers" (1991). It was during this period, when he joined forces with Neil Simon. He earned numerous Tony Award nominations and was the recipient of a Tony Award for "I Love My Wife" (1977) and "Biloxi Blues" (1985). He made his motion picture directing debut with Simon's "Barefoot in the Park" (1967) and followed this with "The Odd Couple" (1968), "Cactus Flower" (1969), "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" (1972), "Mame" (1974), "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (1986) and "A Fine Romance" (1992). Additionally, he experienced acting roles in the films "A Thousand Clowns" (1965), "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" (1975), "Lovesick" (1983) and "Nobody's Fool" (1994). Saks was married to actress Beatrice Arthur from 1950 until their divorce in 1978. He died of complications from pneumonia.