D.L. Coburn, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Playwright of The Gin Game, Dies at 87

D.L. Coburn, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose debut play The Gin Game became an enduring work that is still widely produced, died of colon cancer on December 3 in Dallas, Texas. He was 87.

Born Donald Lee Coburn on August 4, 1938 in Baltimore, Coburn did not follow a traditional path to the theater. After graduating from high school, he served in the U.S. Navy and later worked as an advertising copywriter. He eventually opened his own marketing business in Dallas. He wrote his first play at the age of 39.

That play, The Gin Game, premiered in Los Angeles in September 1976. The two-character drama centers on two elderly residents of a nursing home who form a complicated bond while playing gin rummy. After the premiere’s positive reception, the play was produced at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where it was discovered by married actors Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, who brought The Gin Game to Broadway under the direction of Mike Nichols. The production ran for more than 500 performances and garnered four Tony Award nominations with Tandy winning for Best Actress in a Play. Coburn won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The Gin Game returned to Broadway in 1997, starring Charles Durning and Julie Harris, and again in 2015 with James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson. Beyond Broadway, the two-hander continues to be a staple of regional and community theaters. It has also been adapted multiple times for film and television, including a 1981 film starring Cronyn and Tandy, and a TV version with Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore in 2003.

Although The Gin Game was Coburn’s only play to reach Broadway, he continued to write. His other works include Bluewater Cottage, Guy, Noble Adjustment, Fear of Darkness, Firebrand, The Cause and Return to Bluefin.

Coburn is survived by his wife, Marsha, his children Donn and Kimberly and three grandchildren, Neil, Alexander and Ryan.