Sam Simon: Terminally Ill ‘Simpsons’ Co-Creator Donates $100M

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Sam Simon of Simpson’s Success Pays It Forward

A sad but interesting story from The New York Post about Sam Simon: “The Simpsons” co-creator Sam Simon is calling his battle with terminal cancer the “most amazing experience” of his life and has donated his $100 million fortune to animal rights and other charities.

Simon, 59, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2012 and given just three months to live, but he’s beaten the bleak odds.

“They showed me my scans,” he told NBC’s Maria Shriver in an interview at his home. “They said, ‘These are the scans of a dead man.’ I said, ‘Is it curable?’ And they said, ‘We don’t use that word.’

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“I will say that the doctor said, ‘I can’t cure you, but my job is to keep you alive.’ And he has done a remarkable job of it.”

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Simon developed the long-running animated sitcom with James Brooks and Matt Groening 25 years ago, making Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie household names — and introducing “D’oh!” into the national lexicon.

The show has won dozens of awards, including 31 Primetime Emmys.

He attributed his positive outlook despite the dire prognosis to being “surrounded by people who love me and take care of me.”

“That is called happiness,” he said. “I think I may have had a problem letting it in before … Cancer has been a fight, a journey, an adventure and the most amazing experience of my life.”

Simon also joked with Shriver by saying cancer is “the greatest thing in the world” if you seek publicity and “want to pick up girls.”

He decided to turn his attention to saving animals and fighting homelessness by donating his fortune to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Save the Children and Feeding Families.

He also created the Sam Simon Foundation, which rescues dogs and trains them to assist disabled vets and the deaf.

Simon said he and PETA President Ingrid Newkirk are “planning a series of animal liberations.”

“I get to watch these animals that have been in concrete bunkers their whole lives take their first step on grass,” he told Shriver.

“The thing about animals that speaks to me so much is that my passion for the animals and against animal abuse is based on the knowledge that these creatures which think and feel can’t speak for themselves,” he said.