Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and two-time Oscar-winner Horton Foote was originally an actor who began writing plays as a member of the American Actors Theatre in order to assure himself good parts. However, when critics praised his playwriting over his acting, he eventually took the hint and devoted himself to writing that has earned acclaim for its poignant evocations of rural America. Much of Foote's work has centered around Wharton, TX, the town of his birth, from his first produced play "Wharton Dance" (1940) to the nine-play series about four generations of his Texas forebearers, "The Orphans' Home", which yielded the films "1918" (1985), "On Valentine's Day" (1986) and "Convicts" (1991), among others. In addition to adapting his own work for the screen, he has also penned screen adaptations of Harper Lee ("To Kill a Mockingbird" 1962), William Faulkner ("Tomorrow" 1972) and John Steinbeck ("Of Mice and Men" 1992).
Live TV of the 1950s afforded Foote a tremendous opportunity to hone his skills. In 1953 alone, ten of his one-hour dramatic scripts aired, including the original version of "The Trip to Bountiful" on NBC's "Philco Television Playhouse". He adapted Faulkner's "The Old Man" (1958) for "Playhouse 90" (CBS), earning an Emmy nomination, and would (ironically enough) win an Emmy for a later rendition of it for "Hallmark Hall of Fame" (CBS, 1997). Foote made his feature screenwriting debut with Cornel Wilde's "Storm Fear" (1958) but really came into his own with his Oscar-winning screenplay for "To Kill a Mockingbird". He added a second Academy Award for his only original feature screenplay to date, "Tender Mercies" (1982), the episodic portrait of a country singer which also earned a Best Actor Oscar for Robert Duvall. (Duvall, who had debuted as Boo Radley in "Mockingbird", also acted in "The Chase" (1966), "Tomorrow", "1918" (1985) and "Convicts", all scripted by Foote.)
Despite his success in film and TV, Foote remains first and foremost a playwright, still churning out work in his eighties. NYC's Signature Theater Company honored him by devoting its 1994-95 season to him; one of those productions, "The Young Man From Atlanta", earned the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and had a brief run on Broadway. He also provided the voice of Jefferson Davis for Ken Burns' critically acclaimed documentary "The Civil War" (PBS, 1990), and adaptations of his plays "The Habitation of Dragons" (TNT, 1992) and "Lily Dale" (Showtime, 1996) preceded the Showtime production of "Horton Foote's Alone" (1997). Two of his children, Hallie Foote and Horton Foote Jr, are actors who have appeared frequently in his work both on stage and screen.