Playwright Simon Gray Dies at 71

Simon Gray, the British playwright who received Tony Award nominations for Butley and Otherwise Engaged, died today. He was 71 and had been suffering from lung cancer.

Gray’s many other plays included The Common Pursuit, which had been recently revived in London, Wise Child, Quartermaine’s Terms, The Rear Column, The Holy Terror, and Melons. He was also the author of five novels and a series of critically acclaimed diaries, along with numerous screenplays and teleplays.

His best known work, Butley, concerned an English professor who loses his wife and male protégé in the same day. It was filmed in 1974 by Harold Pinter with original star Alan Bates in the title role and revived on Broadway in 2006 with Nathan Lane.