U.S. Playwright Horton Foote

Award-winning American Dramatist

Mar 5, 2009

American playwright Horton Foote, born March 4, 1919, died a few days ago, on March 4, 2009.

American playwright Horton Foote passed away March 4, 2009 at the age of 92. According to the New York Times, Foote's work "chronicled a wistful American odyssey through the 20th century." Enjoying a long career, Foote's first play, Texas Town, was produced Off-Broadway in 1942. In 2008 his play, Dividing the Estate, was performed on Broadway. Critically acclaimed, Dividing the Estate is expected to receive Tony nominations.

Awards

Born in Wharton, Texas, Foote was elected to the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1999. President Clinton awarded Foote the National Medal of Arts Award in 2000.

Foote won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1995 for his play The Young Man from Atlanta. Nominated for a Tony Award, the play ran for 84 performances on Broadway. Previously running Off-Broadway, The Young Man from Atlanta was featured as part of an entire season of Foote's plays at New York's Signature Theatre. The play revisits characters Foote explored in The Orphans' Home Cycle; a series of nine plays about a Texas family.

Historic Production of The Orphans' Home Cycle

In partnership during 2009-2010, Hartford Stage and Signature Theatre will mount a production that compasses all nine plays of The Orphans' Home Cycle. According to Playbill, working on the upcoming production of The Orphans' Home Cycle, Foote was temporarily living in Hartford, CT,. He was in Hartford at the time of his death.

Television and Film Career

Forging a writer's living, Foote wrote for television during the 50's and 60's for such shows as Studio One and Playhouse 90. Even after stage and film success, he continued to write for television. Foote won an Emmy for outstanding writing of a miniseries in 1997 for his adaptation of William Faulkner's Old Man. Forty-two years earlier; he was nominated for his first adaptation of Faulkner's story, which aired on Playhouse 90 in 1953.

Foote also embraced film, writing such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, Tender Mercies, and Trip to Bountiful. First written for the stage, Trip to Bountiful ran unsuccessfully on Broadway in 1953, yet found favor on television and later as a motion picture. It garnered Foote his 3rd Oscar nomination for writing. His first Oscar came for the screenplay of To Kill a Mockingbird. Tender Mercies, a film script he wrote for Robert Duvall, won Foote his 2nd Academy Award for writing. Foote originally met Duvall during casting of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Foote a Playwright First

Despite writing great works for television and film, Foote maintained in a 1999 interview for the Archive of American Television he was first and foremost a playwright. In the interview, Foote offered this advice: "The only thing I ever tell playwrights is number one, train your ear as well as you can, and never throw a scrap of anything away, because you never know if you're going to use it."

Sources for this article

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