Edward Albee, ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ Playwright, Has Died at 88

According to his Albee’s personal assistant, the popular dramatist died after a short illness.

A three-time Pulitzer Prize victor, he was arguably America’s greatest living playwright after the deaths of Arthur Miller and August Wilson in 2005.

It was “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, his first full-length play, that brought him the most notoriety.

With “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and 1964’s “Tiny Alice”, Albee shook up a Broadway that had been dominated by Tennessee Williams, Miller and their intellectual disciples. The Pulitzer board decided the play was not appropriate and a Pulitzer for drama was not awarded that year. His other Pulitzers were for “A Delicate Balance” (1967) and “Seascape” (1975). That was made into a 1973 film starring Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield. His rejection of the family values and preference for an artistic lifestyle led to the clashes with his strong-willed mother that he chronicled in “Three Tall Women”, his most autobiographical work.

In 2005 he received a lifetime achievement Tony award and continued to write into his late 70s, premiering his last play, Me, Myself and I, in 2008.

Born Edward Harvey on March 12, 1928, in what some say was Virginia and others the U.S. capital Washington, Albee was given up for adoption shortly afterward.

Albee’s longtime companion, sculptor Jonathan Thomas, died in 2005.

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.

The writer passed away in his sleep at his home in Montauk.

Holder said the playwright was not alone at the time of his death, but declined to furnish any further details.