Three times Pulitzer prize victor Edward Albee, author of Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf, has died at the age of 88.
Advertisement
The dramatist’s personal assistant, Jakob Holder, confirmed his Friday death to The New York Times.
Albee’s career spanned over five decades and he is considered one of America’s greatest living playwrights after Arthur Miller and August Wilson.
His most widely-known play, the black comedy “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” chronicles the destructive games and eventual breakdown of the marriage between George and his wife Martha after they invite a younger couple into their house for a night. The Pulitzer board decided the play was not appropriate and a Pulitzer for drama was not awarded that year. That was made into a 1973 film starring Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield.
The writer, who grew up in Westchester County N.Y, received a Tony for lifetime achievement in 2005.
He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama three times, for his plays “A Delicate Balance”, “Seascape,” and “Three Tall Women”.
He was born Edward Harvey on March 12, …
An unconventional student, Albee attended several schools, including The Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., from which he graduated in 1946, and Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., from 1946 to 1947.
He moved to New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1950s, finding a more sympathetic environment in the avant-garde scene, where he wrote “The Zoo Story” that marked his breakthrough in theater.
“All art should be useful”, he said.
Advertisement
Actress Mia Farrow was one of the first on Twitter to pay tribute to the legendary playwright.
