American playwright and author AR Gurney died in his Manhattan home on Tuesday at the age of 86, reported The New York Times. The cause of his death is not yet known.
He explored the conventions and anxieties of the upper-class white Anglo-Saxon protestant society, of which he was also a member, in plays like The Middle Ages, The Dining Room, The Cocktail Hour and Love Letters. His list of successful plays also include Sylvia, which was produced in 1995, where a human actor plays a dog adopted by a middle-class couple. The character was played by Sarah Jessica Parker in the original Off-Broadway production.
In his later years, his plays became more political. His last play, Love & Money, was staged in 2015.
Gurney was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1930. He graduated from the Yale School of Drama in 1958. He also taught humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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