Legendary Three-Time Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright Edward Albee Dead at 88

Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning playwright Edward Albee died at his home in Montauk on September 16 at the age of 88, according to his longtime personal assistant, Jakob Holder. He passed away peacefully following a short illness.

Albee wrote more than 30 plays, including Zoo Story, The Death of Bessie Smith, The Sandbox, Fam and Yam, The American Dream, The Ballad of the Sad Café, Tiny Alice, Box and Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, All Over, Listening, Counting the Ways, The Three Arms, Finding the Sun, Marriage Play, Fragments, The Play About the Baby, Occupant, At Home at the Zoo and Me, Myself and I.

His play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf?, which was a titanic achievement that went on to become an iconic film, won a Tony Award as did his later work The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? Meanwhile, A Delicate Balance, Seascape and Three Tall Women were all awarded Pulitzer Prizes. He was a member of the Dramatist Guild Council and president of the Edward F. Albee Foundation. He was awarded the Gold Medal in Drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1980 and in 1996 received the Kennedy Center Honors and the National Medal of Arts. In 2005, he was awarded a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Several years ago, before undergoing extensive surgery, Albee penned the following note to be issued at the time of his death: “To all of you who have made my being alive so wonderful, so exciting and so full, my thanks and all my love.”