Romulus Linney

Romulus Linney, the prolific American playwright, was born on September 21, 1930 in Philadelphia. He was the namesake of his great-grandfather, the Republican Congressman, Romulus Zachariah Linney, a Confederate Army veteran who represented North Carolina's 8th District from 1895-1901. Raised in North Carolina and Tennessee, Linney graduated from Oberlin College and then attended the Yale School of Drama, here he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Linney wrote 85 plays, including "Holy Ghosts", "Sand Mountain, "The Sorrows of Frederick", and "2: Goering at Nuremberg". His play "The 34th Star" was produced for public television in 1974.

His plays were staged Off- and Off-Off-Broadway and by regional theaters. His one Broadway production, "The Love Suicide at Schofield Barracks", was a flop, closing after only five performances in 1972. (The play was revived Off-Broadway in 1992, playing for a little over two weeks.) While he was never a success in commercial terms, he was highly respected. Linney won two Obie Awards, one of which was for career achievement, and two National Critics Awards. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Academy honored him with its Award in Literature, its Award of Merit and the Gold Medal, its highest award. In 1994, he also received an honorary doctorate award from his alma mater, Oberlin College.

Linney also taught dramatic writing, eventually serving as the head of Columbia University's MFA Playwriting program. He also taught playwriting at the Actors Studio's MFA program, and taught at the New School in New York, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania, among other schools.

Suffering from lung cancer, Romulus Linney died on January 15, 2011. He was 80 years old. The award-winning actress Laura Linney is his daughter. They appeared together in the movie Kinsey (2004).