Matty Simmons, who co-founded theNational Lampoonmagazine and produced films includingAnimal Houseand theVacationmovies starring Chevy Chase, died Wednesday, his daughter announced.
He was 93. "Yesterday I lost my hero," daughter Kate Simmons wrote in an Instagram post. "My dad had gone from the sharpest, healthiest 93-year-old most people have encountered to abruptly having every imaginable issue except corona." The Brooklyn-born Simmons, a top executive with Diners Club, the first credit card company, was brought on to assist Harvard Lampoon alumni Doug Kenney and Henry Beard in the publication ofNational Lampoon, with the first issue arriving in April 1970.