Danny Simon, a veteran comedy writer who was a member of the fabled writing staff of Sid Caesar's "Your Show of Shows" and the inspiration for characters in many of his younger brother Neil's famous plays, has died. He was 86.

Mr. Simon died Tuesday of complications from a stroke at the Robison Jewish Health Center in Portland, his family said.

Teaming with his brother in the 1940s, Mr. Simon wrote material for comics such as Buddy Hackett, Jan Murray and Phil Silvers. The Simons also wrote for various radio shows and for television shows such as "Broadway Open House" and the Red Buttons and Jackie Gleason shows, as well as "Your Show of Shows."

After the brothers split up as a writing team in 1954, Danny Simon became head writer on "The Colgate Comedy Hour" and later on Danny Thomas' "Make Room for Daddy."

He also wrote for shows such as "My Three Sons," "The Carol Burnett Show," "The Mac Davis Show," "The Kraft Music Hall," "The Facts of Life" and "Diff'rent Strokes" as well as writing jokes for Joan Rivers' guest-host stints on "The Tonight Show."

As a director, his credits include many non-Broadway productions of his brother's plays.

"He was a very, very good man," Caesar said Wednesday. "He knew his business, he knew comedy, and he worked at it diligently. He really was such a dedicated man."

Writer-producer Larry Gelbart, who wrote a failed TV pilot with Neil and Danny Simon in the 1950s, said that, as a comedy writer, Danny Simon "was among the best."

"A lot of people credit him with being terribly influential in their careers," Gelbart said.

Woody Allen is one of them. He was a shy 17-year-old in the mid-1950s when Danny Simon hired him to write sketches on "The Colgate Comedy Hour."

"I learned a few things on my own since, and modified some of the things he taught me, but everything, unequivocally, that I learned about comedy writing I learned from Danny Simon," Allen once said.

Mr. Simon was a major influence in his brother Neil's career. They wrote together for nine years, and hugely successful Neil Simon plays such as "Come Blow Your Horn," "The Odd Couple," "Plaza Suite," "Chapter Two," "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and "Broadway Bound" had Danny Simon-like characters.

"Danny made me laugh. ... He made everyone laugh," Neil Simon wrote in a statement Tuesday. "He was a character (in more ways than one) in at least nine or 10 of my plays, and I'm sure will probably be there again in many plays to come."

Born in the Bronx on Dec. 18, 1918 — 8 ½ years before his brother — Mr. Simon grew up playing stickball and keeping his eye on Neil in his baby carriage.

The brothers' first big professional break came after World War II when Danny Simon learned that Goodman Ace was assembling a team of comedy writers at CBS Radio. After landing an interview, he was told to bring in a sketch the next day.

" ... We went over to see Goodman Ace — he had a cigar in his mouth and looked like George S. Kaufman — and he read one joke and fell off his chair. The cigar flew out of his mouth and he said, 'OK, when do you guys start working?' "

In the early 1960s, Danny Simon gave his brother the idea for what became one of his biggest plays, "The Odd Couple."

It is based loosely on Danny Simon's experiences while going through a divorce from his wife, Arlene, and sharing a home with an agent friend whose wife had left him. Danny was considered the neater of the two.

Mr. Simon reportedly was irritated later that Neil did not credit the script as "from an idea by Danny Simon." Neil Simon, however, gave his brother one-sixth of the royalties.

In 1980, Mr. Simon accepted an offer to lecture on comedy writing at the University of Southern California. Over the next 15 years, he conducted seminars there and at other colleges and universities.

In addition to his brother, Mr. Simon is survived by a son, Michael, of Portland; a daughter, Valerie, of Los Angeles; and two grandchildren.