Albert Horton Foote Jr. (March 14, 1916 – March 4, 2009) was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received Academy Awards for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which was adapted from the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee, and Tender Mercies (1983). He was also known for his notable live television dramas produced during the Golden Age of Television.
Foote received the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play The Young Man from Atlanta. He was the inaugural recipient of the Austin Film Festival's Distinguished Screenwriter Award. In 2000, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Foote was born in 1916 in Wharton, Texas, the son of Harriet Gautier "Hallie" Brooks and Albert Horton Foote. His younger brothers were Thomas Brooks Foote (1921–44), who died in aerial combat over Germany during World War II, and John Speed Foote (1923–95).
Foote moved to California, where he studied theater at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1931–32. He began his career as an actor, but was also writing plays. After getting better reviews for his plays than for his acting, during the 1940s he focused on writing. He became one of the leading writers for American television during the 1950s, beginning with an episode of The Gabby Hayes Show.
His play The Trip to Bountiful premiered March 1, 1953, on NBC with the leading cast members (Lillian Gish, Eva Marie Saint) reprising their roles on Broadway later that year. He later adapted the play into a feature film.
Throughout the 1950s, Foote wrote for The Philco Television Playhouse, The United States Steel Hour, Playhouse 90, Studio One, and Armchair Theatre, among others. He continued into the 1960s with ITV Playhouse and DuPont Show of the Month.
He twice adapted William Faulkner's "Old Man" to television, in 1958 and 1997. Each received an Emmy nomination. In 1997 Foote won Outstanding Writing of a Miniseries or Special.
Foote's plays were produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway and at regional theatres, such as the Goodman Theatre in Chicago.
He wrote the English adaptation of the original Japanese book for the 1970 musical Scarlett, a musical adaptation of Gone with the Wind.
He won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for The Young Man from Atlanta. The Goodman Theatre production that was taken to Broadway in 1997 was nominated for the Tony Award Best Play, but did not win. The production starred Rip Torn, Shirley Knight and Biff McGuire. Knight and McGuire were also nominated for Tony Awards.
In 1996, Foote was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.
In 2000, Foote was honored with the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award as a Master American Dramatist.
His three-play biographical series (three full-length pieces comprising three one-act plays each), mainly about his father, The Orphans' Home Cycle, ran in repertory Off-Broadway in 2009–2010. These plays are Roots in a Parched Ground, Convicts, Lily Dale, The Widow Claire, Courtship, Valentine's Day, 1918, Cousins, and The Death of Papa. The combined productions received a Special Drama Desk Award "to the cast, creative team and producers of Horton Foote's epic The Orphans' Home Cycle". Some plays had previously been produced separately. Convicts, Lily Dale, Courtship, Valentine's Day and 1918 were filmed, and the latter three were shown on PBS in 1987 as a mini-series titled The Story of A Marriage.
In describing his three-play work, The Orphans' Home Cycle, the drama critic for the Wall Street Journal said this: "Foote, who died last March, left behind a masterpiece, one that will rank high among the signal achievements of American theater in the 20th century."
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 1963. Foote did not attend the Oscars ceremony in 1963 because he did not expect to win, and so was not present to collect the award in person; it was accepted on his behalf by the film's producer, Alan J. Pakula.
Foote personally recommended actor Robert Duvall for the part of Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird after meeting him during a 1957 production of The Midnight Caller at Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. The two would work together many more times in the future. Foote had described Duvall as "our number one actor."
Foote's script for the 1983 film Tender Mercies had been rejected by many American film directors before Australian director Bruce Beresford finally accepted it; Foote later said, "this film was turned down by every American director on the face of the globe." The film received five 1984 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay (which Foote won). Duvall won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance. Aware of his failure to attend the 1963 ceremony, Foote made sure to attend the 1984 ceremony. The film also earned Foote the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Screenplay.
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 in 1962.