Horton Foote

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Albert Horton Foote, Jr. (born March 14, 1916 in Wharton , Texas , † March 4, 2009 in Hartford , Connecticut ) was an American playwright and screenwriter . In his plays and scripts he wrote about the dark side of everyday life in the American southern states . His subjects are mostly about family conflicts and the difficulties in the life of simple people, which are ultimately overcome together. Audiences and critics appreciate his positive portrayals of a sense of community and joint coping with restrictions and hardship.

life and work

Horton Foote was the eldest of three sons of gentlemen's outfitter Albert Horton Foote, Sr. and piano teacher Harriet Gautier "Hallie" Brooks. His younger brothers were Thomas Brooks Foote (1921–1944) and John Speed ​​Foote (1923–1995). He studied acting at the Pasadena Playhouse in California for two years and began his acting career on New York's Broadway in 1935 . He soon discovered that the easiest way for him to get good roles was when he wrote the pieces himself. He was encouraged to do so by the choreographer Agnes de Mille and ensemble members. In 1941 his first play, Texas Town, hit an off-Broadway stage. It is set in a drugstore, the social center of a small community whose owners, two brothers, love the same woman. His plays, which include one-act plays and experimental works , were later performed on Broadway . Among the many artists he worked with was the dancer and choreographer Martha Graham . In the early 1950s, joined Foote from stage to writing screenplays for television as "The Trip to Bountiful" ( journey to happiness ) and "The Chase", which were later adapted as feature films. In 1962 he wrote his first screenplay for a movie, “To Kill a Mockingbird” ( Who disturbs the nightingale ).

Foote wrote a total of 60 plays, a dozen screenplays and more than a dozen television plays. His plays often revolve around the small Texas town of Wharton, which he fictionally calls Harrison. His style is compared to that of Chekhov , mostly complex dramas about everyday life in the provinces in which nothing seems to happen. He was a member of PEN America .

family

In 1945 he married Lillian Vallish Foote and moved with her to Washington, DC for five years , where she ran her own theater. They then moved to New Hampshire before finally moving back to New York City. His wife died in 1992 after 47 years of marriage. Most recently he lived with the family of his daughter Hallie Foote (* 1950) in California. Foote had four children who also worked on projects with their father: actors Horton Foote Jr. and Hallie Foote, playwright Daisy Foote, and former director Walter Foote, who is now a lawyer in Westchester County.

Horton Foote died at the age of 92 after a brief illness and was buried in Wharton, the town of his birth.

Quotes

"Mr. Foote is a master of the distinctive art of balancing everyday domestic clutter over a pit of existential darkness. "

- Ben Brantley, New York Times, 2004
( Translation: Foote is a master in his signature art of balancing over a pit of existential darkness in everyday domestic confusion.)

"Mr. Foote was a major American dramatist whose epic body of work recalls Chekhov in its quotidian comedy and heartbreak, and Faulkner in its ability to make his own corner of America stand for the whole. "

- Frank Rich , New York Times, 2009
( translation: Foote was an important American playwright, whose narrative oeuvre is reminiscent of Chekhov's everyday life with his comedy and heartache, and Faulkner's ability to portray his homeland as the whole of America.)

Awards (selection)

Works (selection)

Plays

  • 1965: A Man Is Chased (The Chase)
  • 2013: The Trip to Bountiful, WP: New York City, 2013

Filmography

Scripts

Literary template

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mary Rourke: "Horton Foote dies at 92" , Los Angeles Times , March 5, 2009 (English)
  2. ↑ Alex Witchel: "His Kind of Town" , New York Times , August 19, 2007 (English)
  3. ↑ PEN American Center Annual Report , Vol. 2008-2009 , p. 23.
  4. ↑ Ben Brantley, “Theater Review. The Suffocating Dust in a Household's Cozy clutter " , New York Times , August 6, 2004 (english)
  5. ↑ Wilborn Hampton: "Horton Foote, Chronicler of America in Plays and Film, Dies at 92" , The New York Times, March 4, 2009 (English)
  6. ^ Members: Horton Foote. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed March 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Foote, Horton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American playwright and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Wharton , Texas
DATE OF DEATH March 4, 2009
Place of death Hartford , Connecticut