Playwright Mark Medoff Dies at 79

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report the passing of playwright and educator Mark Medoff. He was 79.

Medoff received the Tony and Olivier Awards for Children of a Lesser God and was nominated for an Academy Award and a Writers Guild of America Best Adapted Screenplay Award for the film script of Children.

He received an Obie Award for When You Comin Back, Red Ryder?

Mark is a Distinguished Achievement Professor at New Mexico State University, where he has been on faculty and an artist in residence since 1966. He and his family founded The Hope E. Harrison Foundation to promote research to end the chromosomal anomaly, Trisomy 18, which afflicts Mark's granddaughter, Hope. A memoir, Hope Full: A Reckoning with the Universe, is forthcoming, proceeds to go to the foundation.

The Heart Outright, based on Mark's 1992 play, directed by Mark's son-in-law, Ross Marks, has been bought for distribution after showings at a half dozen film festivals.

Mark is survived by his wife Stephanie, their three daughters and eight grandchildren.