Arthur Laurents. Famous Playwright.

Arthur Laurents BIRTH 14 Jul 1917 Brooklyn, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, USA DEATH 5 May 2011 (aged 93) New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USA BURIAL Cremated, Other, Specifically: Ashed placed within a memorial bench in Quogue, Long Island, New York. MEMORIAL ID 69401572 · View Source MEMORIAL PHOTOS 2 FLOWERS 88 Playwright, Screenwriter, Novelist, Stage Director. Born in New York City, he attended Cornell University from where he attained his BA in English and while serving with the US Army during World War II, he worked on military training films in addition to writing scripts for radio programs. Laurents drew from his experiences during the war and penned his first play "Home of the Brave" (1945), which launched his six-decade association with Broadway. He would close out the decade with his introduction to Hollywood as a scriptwriter, contributing to Hitchcock's "Rope" (1948), followed by "The Snake Pit" (1948) and "Caught" (1949). During the 1950s, a string of successful plays was conceived by Laurents which included "The Time of the Cuckoo" (1952 to 1953), "West Side Story" (1957 to 1959) and "Gypsy" (1959 to 1961, receiving a Tony Award nomination), the latter two were made into acclaimed motion picture adaptations; he simultaneously continued writing film stories, notably "Anastasia" (1956) and "Bonjour tristesse" (1958). He garnered Tony Awards with "Hallelujah, Baby" (1968) and "La Cage aux Folles", the latter for his directing effort. Laurents authored "The Way We Were" (1972) and "The Turning Point" (1977), both of which were adapted into memorable pictures. He remained active in the industry with his directing of a revival of "West Side Story" a few months prior to his death. He died from complications of pneumonia.