'The Simpsons' Co-Developer Dies Aged 59

Award-winning American director, producer and writer Sam Simon, a co-developer of The Simpsons, has passed away at age 59 following a protracted battle with colon cancer.

Simon, who along with Matt Groening and producer James L. Brooks was one of the three key developmental creatives who worked on The Simpsons in its early years, was diagnosed with the disease in 2012 and, at the time, was given three to six months to live.

However, he defied doctors' expectations, spending his final years engaging in philanthropic pursuits for the benefit of animals, giving much of his estimated $US100 million (about $130 million) fortune to charitable causes.

Prior to helping shape The Simpsons into a nascent cultural institution, Simon was signed as a writer to ABC/NBC's Taxi after submitting a spec script during the show's third season before progressing to showrunner in time for its final season. From Taxi, Simon joined the writing and production staff of Cheers, where he stayed for its first three seasons (1982-1985), and spent much of the rest of the '80s in short-lived stints for other shows, most notably the self-referential, meta-before-its-time It's Garry Shandling's Show from 1987-88.

He soon teamed up with Groening and Brooks to create The Simpsons for The Tracy Ullman Show before the off-kilter animated shorts blew out into a full-size standalone prospect in 1989. Simon would stay with the show for four years, leaving in 1993, not long after the show had experienced its first big changeover in writing staff. Despite his relatively short tenure, Simon won seven Primetime Emmy Awards for his work with the show, as well as a Peabody award in 1996.

Following his somewhat acrimonious departure from The Simpsons, Brooks went on to work with George Carlin on the short-lived The George Carlin Show, and would spend the late '90s directing miscellaneous episodes for series such as Friends, The Norm Show and The Michael Richards Show.

Largely pulling back from TV and film work in the 2000s, he established the Sam Simon Foundation in 2002, self-funding programs dedicated to rescuing and retraining stray dogs due to be euthanised.

In 2011, he established the Sam Simon Foundation Feeding Families program, which provides (vegan) food for disadvantaged people and animals.

Several of Simon's peers and proteges have since reacted to the news on social media, including showrunner Al Jean, past showrunners (and Mission Hill creators) Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein, writer Matt Selman, director David Silverman, voice actor Hank Azaria and former writer-turned-late night host Conan O'Brien.