Playwright Herb Gardner is Dead at 68

Herb Gardner, the Broadway playwright who penned A Thousand Clowns (1962), died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan of lung disease at age 68.

Gardner was most recently represented on Broadway by the 2002 revival of his 1986 Tony-winning play I’m Not Rappaport, featuring original star Judd Hirsch playing opposite Ben Vereen. His other works for the stage include The Goodbye People, Thieves, and Conversations With My Father. He adapted his short story “Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?” for film in 1971.

Gardner was born in Brooklyn on December 28, 1934. He graduated from the High School for the Performing Arts and later studied at what is now Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania and Antioch College in Ohio. Prior to taking up writing, he was well known for the nationally syndicated comic strip “The Nebbishes.”

His first marriage, to actress Rita Gardner, ended in divorce. Herb Gardner is survived by his second wife, Barbara C. Sproul, and two sons.