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Playwright Horton Foote Dies at 92
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 5, 2009
Modified Mar 5, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 5, 2009
Modified Mar 5, 2009
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Horton Foote, the author of over sixty plays and considered by many to be "the American Chekhov," died yesterday in Hartford, CT. He was 92. The courteous, industrious playwright was living in Hartford while adapting his nine-play Orphans’ Home Cycle for a forthcoming production at the Signature Theater here in New York, according to the Times obit. In addition to his plays, many of which chronicled the lives of residents in a small, fictitious Texas town, Foote also wrote the screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies. Nine of his plays were produced on Broadway, most recently the mordant comedy Dividing the Estate. Speaking to the Times in 1986, Foote shared his personal philosophy: "I believe very deeply in the human spirit and I have a sense of awe about it because I don’t know how people carry on. I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them, to kill them, to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and they don’t ask quarters." Foote's lifelong friend Harper Lee once said the playwright "looked like God, only cleanshaven."
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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