British Playwright Simon Gray Dies at 71

Simon Gray, the celebrated British playwright and memoirist, died on August 7 at age 71. The author of more than 30 works for stage and television, including the plays Butley, Quartermaine's Terms and Otherwise Engaged, Gray also penned five novels. He capped his career with a series of acclaimed diaries ending with this summer's The Last Cigarette, which candidly and humorously detailed his battle with lung cancer.

Born in Hayling Island, England, on October 21, 1936, Gray attended Cambridge University and was an English lecturer for many years at Queen Mary, University of London. That privileged, literate setting provided the backdrop for many of his plays, including 1971's Butley, about a cynical English professor, and 1981's Quartermaine's Terms, perhaps his most famous play, about lonely teachers.

Gray counted four Broadway productions to his name, including 1972's Wild Child, Butley revived in 2007 in a production starring Nathan Lane and 1977's Otherwise Engaged. That play and Butley each earned Tony Award nominations for Best Play. In addition to Quartermaine's Terms, Gray's plays The Common Pursuit, The Rear Column and The Holy Terror received off-Broadway productions.

In recent months, Gray was working with a West End theater producer on a stage adaptation of The Last Cigarette, a show that may still happen, according to The Guardian. He also completed a final diary, which was due to be published later this year.

Gray is survived by his wife, Victoria of the prominent Rothschild family, and two children, Benjamin and Lucy, from his first marriage to Beryl Mary Kevern.