Theater News

Pulitzer Prize Winner Horton Foote Dies at 92; Broadway to Dim Lights in His Honor

Horton Foote
Horton Foote

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Horton Foote died at his home in Connecticut on March 4, at the age of 92. Broadway marquees will be dimmed tonight, March 5, for one minute at exactly 8:00 pm in tribute. In addition, Off-Broadway shows across New York will dim their theater marquee lights for one minute at curtain time Friday evening, March 6.

Foote was recently represented on Broadway by Dividing the Estate, which is scheduled to play Hartford Stage later this season. He won the Pulitzer for The Young Man From Atlanta, which was also nominated for a Tony Award as Best Play. His many other plays include The Trip to Bountiful, The Traveling Lady, and a series of plays now grouped as “The Orphans’ Home Cycle,” that are set to be co-produced next season by Hartford Stage and New York City’s Signature Theatre Company.

Foote won two Academy Awards, for his adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and the original screenplay Tender Mercies, which starred Robert Duvall and Betty Buckley. He also received an Oscar nomination for the film version of The Trip to Bountiful, and wrote such screenplays as The Chase and Hurry Sundown. In addition, he won an Emmy Award for 1997’s Old Man, adapted from a work by William Faulkner.

Foote is survived by his children, Horton Jr., Walter, Hallie, and Daisy.