Edward Albee

A playwright whose name is synonymous with the best of American theater, Edward Albee was born in Virginia. A nonconformist from early in his life, Albee was expelled from two high schools and a liberal arts college before he set out on his own with the intention of becoming a writer. He settled in New York's artist-centric Greenwich Village and published his first play, "The Zoo Story," in 1959. The early effort won Albee the Drama Desk Vernon Rice Award, so beginning a long and storied career paved with accolades and overall acclaim. He would win three Pulitzer Prizes during his career for 1967's "A Delicate Balance," 1975's "Seascape," and 1991's "Three Tall Women." Additionally, Albee's most famous work, 1963's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was chosen for the award by Pulitzer's drama section, but was overruled by the organization's advisory committee, which opted not to give the award out at all that year. Albee also won three Tonys-including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005-and was nominated for five more. Though he was openly gay, Albee was vocally opposed to being characterized as a gay playwright rather than as "a playwright who happens to be gay." His many works have been praised by critics for their ingenious Americanization of European absurdism, and he famously established the artist colony the Edward F. Albee Foundation, Inc. in 1967, which was continually funded by Albee's royalties from "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Albee passed away at his home in Montauk, New York in 2016. He was 88 years old.