Horton Foote dies at 92; playwright, screenwriter chronicled small-town Southern life

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Horton Foote dies at 92; playwright, screenwriter chronicled small-town Southern life

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-horton-foote5-2009mar05,0,5535069.story?track=rss

Horton Foote, whose bittersweet stories of heartbreak and regret set in small Southern towns earned him wide popular acclaim as well as two Academy Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, died Wednesday. He was 92.

Foote died in his sleep at his apartment in Hartford, Conn., said Paul Marte, a spokesman for the Hartford Stage theater company. Foote was in Hartford with his family, including his actress daughter Hallie and son-in-law Devon Abner, who are appearing in a stage adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

Foote emerged on the national scene when he won an Academy Award for his screen adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird," the 1962 movie based on Harper Lee's novel about a black man in a Southern town unjustly accused of rape.

He won a second Oscar for his original screenplay for 1983's "Tender Mercies." A low-budget film about a popular country singer trying to beat alcoholism and start a new life, it starred Robert Duvall, who won a best actor Oscar for his performance.

[pleah]

1. :(