born March 12, 1928, Virginia, U.S.
U.S. playwright.
He was the adopted grandson and namesake of a well-known vaudeville theatre manager. His first one-act play, The Zoo Story (1959), and other early plays, including The Sandbox (1960) and The American Dream (1961), were characteristic of the Theatre of the Absurd . His Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962; film, 1966) was widely acclaimed. He won Pulitzer prizes for A Delicate Balance (1966), Seascape (1975), and Three Tall Women (1991). He has also adapted other writers' works for the stage, including Vladimir Nabokov 's Lolita (1981).