UCLA Theater Professor Gary Gardner Passes Away at 69

According to The Hollywood Reporter, UCLA theater professor Gary Gardner died of natural causes on June 15, 2013. He was 69.

During his time with the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, Gardner taught the likes of screenwriters Shane Black and Ed Solomon, actors Tim Robbins, Nancy Cartwright, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mariska Hargitay and Susan Egan, producer Diane Frolov and Disney Theatrical Group's Thom Schumacher.

Gardner received his MFA in playwriting from UCLA in 1968. He won the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award for his play August and Ice Cream. Gardner chaired The Ray Bolger Musical Theater Program at UCLA from 1998. He also wrote the book and lyrics for off-Broadway's The Matinee Kids, with composer Brian Lasser, as well as cabaret material for Carol Lawrence, Karen Mason and Donna Murphy.

Gardner was the No. 1 UCLA Instructor between 2001 and 2007. Many of his student productions went on to win Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival awards. Gardner's last production at UCLA was Eugene O'nEill's Desire Under the Elms in May 2013.

Two scholarships will be created in Gardner's honor. For more about Gardner, please see the Facebook page created in celebration of his life.