Kevin Curran, a veteran TV comedy writer-producer who won six Emmys as part of the staffs of The Simpsons and Late Night With David Letterman, died today at his Los Angeles home after a lengthy illness. He was 59. Simpsons showrunner Al Jean, who met Curran while they were at Harvard in the late 1970s, confirmed the news of Twitter: 
 
 .@TheSimpsons V v sad at the passing of Kevin Curran brilliantly funny and true friend https://t.co/hCoPUEV6xx — Al Jean (@AlJean) October 25, 2016 
 
 NBC 
 
 Curran wrote nearly a dozen episodes of Fox’s The Simpsons and had been part of its producing team for the past 15 years, most recently as co-EP. He shared three Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program among 14 nominations spanning 2002-2016. Earlier in his career, he shared three consecutive writing Emmys for NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman, as the show began to dominate late-night TV and shake up the TV comedy world. 
 
 Jean said today in a statement: “Kevin Curran was a sweet, brilliant man who said many hilarious things, some unprintable, others which will live forever in a children’s cartoon.” 
 
 During his career, Curran also wrote for and held producer roles on the WB’s Unhappily Ever After (1997-99), NBC’s The Good Life (1994) and another early Fox comedy Married … With Children (1990-97). On the latter show, he also provided the voice for the wisecracking family dog Buck in dozens of episodes. ||||| Kevin Curran, a veteran comedy writer who spent 15 years on “The Simpsons,” died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles after a long illness. He was 59. 
 
 Curran graduated from Harvard College in 1979, where he served as an editor for the Harvard Lampoon. While at Harvard, Curran met Al Jean, who would go on to become the showrunner of Fox’s “The Simpsons.” Curran had been on staff at “The Simpsons” since 2001, most recently serving as co-executive producer. 
 
 “He was one of the funniest guys I ever met,” Jean said. “He also had one of the sweetest, biggest hearts. He really was a terrific guy.” 
 
 Notable episodes Curran wrote for “The Simpsons” include “Don’t Fear the Roofer” (2005) and “I’m Spelling as Fast as I Can” (2003). He conceived the idea and co-wrote the 2002 “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween episode “The Island of Dr. Hibbert.” Curran won three Emmy Awards during his tenure on the show. 
 
 In addition, Curran won three consecutive Emmys from 1985-87 as part of the writing team on NBC’s “Late Night With David Letterman.” In the 1990s, he worked on Fox’s “Married With Children” and was also an executive producer of the WB Network’s “Unhappily Ever After” alongside “Married With Children” creator Ron Leavitt. Curran’s other TV credits included the short-lived ABC comedy “The Good Life.” 
 
 Curran is survived by a son and a daughter that he had with his former partner, author Helen Fielding. 
 
 Friends and former colleagues took to social media to pay tribute to Curran. 
 
 .@TheSimpsons V v sad at the passing of Kevin Curran brilliantly funny and true friend https://t.co/hCoPUEV6xx — Al Jean (@AlJean) October 25, 2016 
 
 He worked with me at the old Letterman show, a millionyears ago. He was sweet, original and hilarious. Very sad to hear he is gone. https://t.co/REmzcQprjS — Merrill Markoe (@Merrillmarkoe) October 25, 2016 
 
 Cynthia Littleton contributed to this report. ||||| He wrote for 'Cheers,' served as a showrunner on 'Taxi' and, after retiring from show business in his 30s, did whatever he wanted — including giving away his fortune to aid animals and humans. 
 
 Sam Simon, the nine-time Emmy Award-winning comedy writer and producer who helped develop The Simpsons, made millions after leaving the show in 1993 and then donated his riches to charity, has died, his foundation announced on Monday. He was 59. 
 
 Simon, who died Sunday evening at his home in the Pacific Palisades, was diagnosed in February 2013 with terminal colon cancer. Through it all, he tried to remain upbeat and keep his sense of humor. 
 
 "He was a genius and a great humanitarian in ways public and private. I personally owe him more than can be repaid, but I will do my best to help every animal I can in his memory," said Simpsons executive producer Al Jean in a statement. 
 
 Added the show's creator Matt Groening: "We will miss Sam's phenomenal talents, sharp intelligence and sly sense of humor. He is gone from our industry too soon." 
 
 During his brief career, the influential Simon also served as the showrunner on the sitcom Taxi at the age of 23; wrote for and produced the comedies Cheers and The Drew Carey Show; and created a Fox series for legendary stand-up comic George Carlin in the mid-1990s. 
 
 Simon also wrote the 1991 film The Super, a 20th Century Fox comedy starring Joe Pesci as a New York slumlord. 
 
 Most recently, Simon was a consultant on the Charlie Sheen series Anger Management and hosted a show on Radioio.com. He showed up frequently on Howard Stern's SiriusXM show and in March 2013 thanked the acerbic host for being "the perfect friend." 
 
 A cartoonist and Stanford graduate, Simon developed The Simpsons with Groening (who came up with the characters based on his family) and producer James L. Brooks. All three had worked on The Tracey Ullman Show, where Bart Simpson and his family got their start as animated sketches shown before and after commercials. 
 
 The Simpsons, centering on TV's "first fully self-aware dysfunctional family," as Simon put it, debuted on Fox on Dec. 17, 1989, and is now the longest-running primetime series in American history. 
 
 Ken Levine, an Emmy winner who has written for The Simpsons and other sitcoms, described Simon's contribution to the show during a 2009 interview published in Stanford Magazine. 
 
 "Sam brought a level of honesty to the characters," Levine said. "Is it too bizarre to say he made cartoon characters three-dimensional? His comedy is all about character, not just a string of gags. In The Simpsons, the characters are motivated by their emotions and their foibles. 'What are they thinking?'— that is Sam's contribution. The stories come from the characters." 
 
 Simon also is credited with assembling the show's elite writing team that included Jean, George Meyer, John Swartzwelder, Mike Reiss, Jon Vitti and Conan O'Brien. 
 
 "I remember Sam coming into the room, and me pitching to him and initially being really intimidated," O'Brien told Vanity Fair in 2007. "He's hilarious. It was fun to try and make him laugh. I remember that about Sam. If I could make Sam laugh, I was excited." 
 
 Tired of the grind, Simon exited the show in 1993 after four seasons but worked out a deal tied to home video sales that he said paid him "tens of millions" every year. The agreement also guaranteed him executive producer credit long after he departed, and his name appears in the credits of every episode. 
 
 A couple of years after he left, Simon knew he would have enough money to retire from show business. He was in his mid-30s. 
 
 As detailed in The Hollywood Reporter's 2013 Philantrophy Issue, Simon's charitable contributions include founding the Malibu-based Sam Simon Foundation (worth nearly $23 million as of 2011) that feeds hungry families and rescues stray dogs. 
 
 His other pet charities include PETA, which in February 2014 thanked him for his support by naming its Norfolk, Va., headquarters The Sam Simon Center; international nonprofit Save the Children; and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a global marine conservation organization. His generosity led the latter in 2012 to name one of the four ships in its fleet of vessels — used to hinder whaling and illegal fishing — the M/Y Simon. 
 
 Simon, a longtime vegan, also turned a Malibu spread into a canine haven that rescues dogs from kill shelters and trains them as companions for the deaf. 
 
 "The Museum of Broadcasting called and said, 'We were thinking about doing an archive interview with you. Do you mind if we did it now?' " Simon said with a laugh on an episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast that first ran in May 2013. 
 
 "The sort of lifetime achievement stuff that I'm getting now is kind of like Tom Sawyer's funeral because they all know I'm sick," Simon told THR's Gary Baum. "I am getting buildings named after me and awards and stuff. The truth is, I have more money than I'm interested in spending. Everyone in my family is taken care of. And I enjoy this." 
 
 In May, it was revealed that Simon spent $60,000 to rescue an abused thoroughbred. 
 
 Simon funded Mercy for Animals undercover investigations into factory farms and slaughterhouses, which exposed horrific and often illegal cruelty to animals. Last year, the organization created the Sam Simon Award. 
 
 "Sam was a heroic humanitarian whose selfless generosity and boundless courage inspired countless people around the world to be kinder to animals — and each other. His heart was as great as his sense of humor," Mercy for Animals president Nathan Runkle said in a statement. 
 
 Simon, who won eight of his Emmys for writing/producing The Simpsons (many after he left) and one for producing The Tracey Ullman Show, was married to and divorced from actress Jennifer Tilly (1984-91) and Playboy Playmate Jami Ferrell (for mere weeks in 2000). Neither marriage produced any children. 
 
 Born June 6, 1955, Simon grew up in Beverly Hills in an era when the neighborhood was "quaint," as he put it. Groucho Marx lived across the street, and he recalled walking into his parents' room as a youngster and finding the legendary comic and his mom sitting on the bed. (He stressed they weren't about to have sex.) Another time, Elvis Presley returned the dog that Simon had lost. 
 
 While at Stanford, Simon drew cartoons for the local newspapers in San Francisco and the school paper and landed a job at Filmation Studios doing storyboards for The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle. 
 
 Simon scored his first TV writing gig on the animated Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids in 1979. He mailed in a script to Taxi (co-created by Brooks) that was accepted, and that led to a staff-writing position and then the job of showrunner. 
 
 Simon also went on to direct episodes of The George Carlin Show, The Drew Carey Show, Friends, Norm and Anger Management. 
 
 An avid poker player, Simon re-created his home game in a penthouse at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas for a Playboy TV show in 2009. The show also featured Tilly — a very good player — as well as comedians Dave Attell, Norm Macdonald, Jeffrey Ross and Artie Lange. 
 
 Another one of Simon's more eclectic pursuits was working the corner at amateur fights and serving as president of Sweet Science Inc., which managed boxer Lamon Brewster. His fighter stunningly knocked out Wladimir Klitschko to win a share of the heavyweight championship in 2004. 
 
 During his chat with Maron, Simon noted that the way to know when to put down your ailing dog is to "list the three things he loves to do. When he can't do those any longer, it's time. 
 
 "One of my three things is laying in bed and watching TV. So by that criteria, I will never been euthanized." 
 
 Later, talking about all the millions he's given to charity, he added: "I kinda like it when people talk about me as a special person. But I know I would be a nut if I didn't have a lot of money." 
 
 Twitter: @mikebarnes4
– Kevin Curran might not have been a household name, but there were few Americans he didn't get a laugh out of during a decades-long career in TV comedy writing and producing. Curran, a six-time Emmy winner who has died from complications from cancer at the age of 59, joined the producing team of The Simpsons in 2001 and wrote a dozen episodes, Deadline reports. He won three of his Emmys with The Simpsons and three with Late Night With David Letterman, where he was part of the writing team from 1985 to 1987, reports Variety. He came up with the show's first Top Ten list: "'Top Ten Words That Almost Rhyme with ‘Peas.'" Curran's other TV credits included Married With Children, where he was a producer from 1990 to 1993—and provided the voice of Buck the Dog. His comedy career started at Harvard, where he was editor of the Harvard Lampoon. "Kevin Curran was a sweet, brilliant man who said many hilarious things, some unprintable, others which will live forever in a children’s cartoon," Simpsons showrunner Al Jean, who first met him at Harvard, said in a statement. Curran is survived by a son and daughter from his long relationship with Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding. (We lost Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon last year.)