Horton Foote (born March 14, 1916 in Wharton, Texas), is a two-time Academy Award and one-time Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated American author and playwright. Perhaps his best known work is his screenplay for To Kill a Mockingbird.
Foote has had plays produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and at many regional theatres. They include Getting Frankie Married—and Afterwards, which received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in 2002, The Carpetbagger's Children, Last of the Thortons, The Chase, The Trip to Bountiful, The Traveling Lady, The Habitation of Dragons, Night Seasons, Tomorrow, The Orphan's Home Cycle (Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts, Lily Dale, The Widow Claire, Courtship, Valentine's Day, 1918, Cousins, The Death of Papa), Dividing the Estate, Talking Pictures, The Roads to Home, Laura Dennis, Vernon Early and many one-act plays. He wrote the English adaptation of the original Japanese book for the 1970 musical Scarlett. He won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for The Young Man From Atlanta. The Goodman Theatre production that was presented on Broadway in New York City in 1997 was nominated for Best Play, but did not win. The production starred Rip Torn, Shirley Knight and William Biff McGuire. Knight and McGuire were also nominated for Tony Awards.
Foote received an Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay and the Writers Guild of America Screen Award for his adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird in 1962. His original screenplay Tender Mercies won an Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay, as well as the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay.
His other film scripts include Baby the Rain Must Fall starring Steve McQueen and Lee Remick, which was based on his play The Travelling Lady. The film was directed by Robert Mulligan who had worked with Foote on To Kill a Mockingbird a few years earlier.
Foote generally wrote screenplays that were based on his plays, such as the semi-autobiographic trilogy of 1918 (1985), On Valentine's Day (1986) and Courtship (1987).
His screenplay for The Trip to Bountiful (1985) garnered him another Academy Award nomination. The film, in which star Geraldine Page won an Academy Award for Best Actress, was based on his 1953 television play that was later adapted for Broadway.
He also adapted works by other authors such as John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men directed by and starring Gary Sinise with John Malkovich) and William Faulkner (a 1997 television adaptation of Old Man, for which Foote won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing of a Miniseries or Special). He also adapted Faulkner's short story into the 1972 film Tomorrow starring Robert Duvall. Foote had originally adapted the story into a play before it was made into a film. Leonard Maltin, in his movie guide book, calls the movie the best film adaptation of any of Faulkner's work.
Playwright Lillian Hellman adapted his play for the 1966 film The Chase with Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and Robert Redford.
Foote holds an honorary doctorate from Carson-Newman College. One of Foote's primary biographers is Dr. Gerald Wood, chair of the English Department at Carson-Newman College. Books by Wood about Foote include Horton Foote and the Theater of Intimacy and Horton Foote: A Casebook. Baylor University also holds close ties with the American Playwright. In 2002 Horton Foote accepted the title as "Visiting Distinguished Dramatist" with the Baylor Department of Theatre Arts.
Foote's children are in show business: actors Horton Foote, Jr. and Hallie Foote; playwright Daisy Foote and director Walter Foote. All four have worked with their father in at least several projects.
His cousin is actor-turned-director Peter Masterson, father of actress Mary Stuart Masterson. Peter Masterson (who starred in such films as The Exorcist and the original version of The Stepford Wives) has directed three screenplays that Foote has written: The Trip to Bountiful, Convicts and the Hallmark Hall of Fame television production of Lily Dale, which starred Mary Stuart Masterson.
