Bernard Pomerance, Tony-Winning Playwright of The Elephant Man, Dies at 76

Bernard Pomerance, the American playwright and poet whose 1979 play The Elephant Man netted him a Tony Award for Best Play, died on August 26 at his home in New Mexico. The cause of death was complications from cancer. He was 76.

Bernard Kline Pomerance was born in Brooklyn on September 23, 1940. He studied at the University of Chicago before moving to London in 1968. His first play, High in Vietnam, Hot Damn, was directed by Roland Rees with whom he went on (together with David Aukin) to form the theater company Foco Novo in 1972.

Pomerance first wrote The Elephant Man—based on the real life of John Merrick, an English man with severe deformities—for Foco Novo, where it debuted in 1977. The Elephant Man opened off-Broadway at the York Theatre at St. Peter's in January 1979, with Philip Anglim starring as Merrick. It transferred to Broadway's Booth Theatre months later, winning the Tony Award for Best Play and going on to play 916 performances. The Elephant Man is one of the most successful works to come out of London theater and has been produced around the world.

The role of Merrick has been played by numerous leading actors over the years including David Schofield, Philip Anglim, David Bowie, Billy Crudup and most recently Bradley Cooper, who starred in the play's 2015 Broadway revival also at the Booth and at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London.

Pomerance also wrote the play Quantrill in Lawrence, produced at the ICA London in 1981, and Melons, produced at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984. Grove Press published a collection of his plays in 2001. His long-form poem "We Need to Dream All This Again" was published by Penguin in 1988. At the time of his death, Pomerance was preparing new productions of his plays Miranda and Spinoff.

Pomerance is survived by his children, Moby and Eve, two grandchildren, William Mossek and Gabriel Pomerance, and a brother, Michael. His wife, Evelyn Franceschi, died in 2015.