James Leo Herlihy
James Leo Herlihy (27 February 1927 – 21 October 1993) was a gay American novelist, playwright and actor.
Born into a working class family in Detroit, Michigan, Herlihy is known for his novels Midnight Cowboy and All Fall Down and his play Blue Denim, all of which were adapted for cinema. Other publications include The Season of the Witch and several short stories.[1]
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[edit] Biography
Herlihy enlisted with the Navy in 1944. He attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina for two years, where he studied sculpture. He then relocated to California and attended the Pasadena Playhouse College of the Theater.[1]
Plays which he wrote include Streetlight Sonata (1950), Moon in Capricorn (1953), and Blue Denim (produced on Broadway in 1958).[1] He directed actress Tallulah Bankhead in a touring production of his play Crazy October in 1959.[2] Three of his one-act plays, titled collectively Stop You're Killing Me were presented by the Theater Company of Boston in 1969.[3] According to author Sean Egan in his James Kirkwood biography Ponies & Rainbows, Herlihy co-wrote the play UTBU with Kirkwood but demanded his name be taken off the credits.[4]
He wrote three novels: All Fall Down (1960), Midnight Cowboy (1965), and Season of the Witch (1971).[5] His short stories were collected in The Sleep of Baby Filbertson and Other Stories (1959) and A Story That Ends in a Scream and Eight Others (1967), a collection which also included plays.[1]
He acted in Edward Albee's play Zoo Story in 1963 in Boston and Paris.[1]
In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments as a protest against the Vietnam War.[6]
He acted in the 1981 movie Four Friends directed by Arthur Penn.[1]
Herlihy committed suicide, aged 66, by taking an overdose of sleeping pills in Los Angeles.[1][7]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- All Fall Down (1960)
- Midnight Cowboy (1965)
- The Season of the Witch (1971)
[edit] Plays
- Streetlight Sonata (1950)
- Moon in Capricorn (1953)
- Blue Denim (1958)
- Crazy October (1959)
- Stop, You’re Killing Me: Three Short Plays (1969)
[edit] Collections
- The Sleep of Baby Filbertson and Other Stories (1958)
- A Story That Ends with a Scream and Eight Others (1967)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g Grimes, William (1993-10-22), "James Leo Herlihy, 66, Novelist Who Wrote 'Midnight Cowboy'", New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/22/obituaries/james-leo-herlihy-66-novelist-who-wrote-midnight-cowboy.html, retrieved 2010-02-11
- ^ Special Collections Department (October 1997), James Leo Herlihy Papers, University of Delaware, http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/herlihy.htm
- ^ "Theater: Laughing in the Dark", Time, 1969-03-28, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839969,00.html, retrieved 2010-02-11
- ^ Egan, Sean (2011) “Ponies & Rainbows: The Life of James Kirkwood" Bearmanor Media, ISBN 1-59393-680-X, page 204
- ^ Houston, Levin (1971-04-17), "Herlihy Captures Reader", The Free Lance-Star - Apr 17, 1971, http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eQQUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=n4oDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3477,5814215&dq=herlihy+crazy-october&hl=en, retrieved 2010-02-11[dead link]
- ^ “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” January 30, 1968 New York Post
- ^ Folkart, Burt A. (October 23, 1993). "J.L. Herlihy; 'Midnight Cowboy' Author". The Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1993-10-23/news/mn-48680_1_midnight-cowboy. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
