Lanford Wilson, playwright extraordinarie, has died

Fri, 03/25/2011 - 10:01am by sernabad

Lanford Wilson, a pioneer playwright on several fronts and a Pulitzer Prize winner, died yesterday in New Jersey.

In the 1960s, Wilson helped put Off Off Broadway on the map. His first full length play, Balm in Gilead, played to standing room only at the La MaMa Theater. As his edgy, fearless plays covered more and more ground-breaking territory, most notably LGBT issues, he moved ever closer to Broadway. Hot L Baltimore was so successful on Off Broadway that it inspired a short-lived 1975 ABC sitcom.

Wilson made it to Broadway in 1969 with The Gingham Dog which tackled interracial marriage.

In 1980, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Talley's Folly, part of his Talley Cycle.

Mr. Wilson, who was 73, died of complications from pneumonia.