D.L. Coburn

D.L. Coburn (1938-2025) was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He came to prominence in 1977 with The Gin Game, which was his first play. The Gin Game ran on Broadway for 516 performances and subsequently toured the nation with its original cast of Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy to sold-out houses in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia and a half dozen other cities before going on a tour of England and Russia. It has since had productions in virtually every country of the western world, including France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania, Israel, Hungary, Brazil, Chile, Argentina and South Africa, as well as heralded productions in Australia, Japan and China. In 1978, the play garnered four Tony nominations and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Plays Mr. Coburn wrote after The Gin Game include Bluewater Cottage (1979), Guy (1983), Noble Adjustment (1985), Fear of Darkness (1995), Firebrand (1997), The Cause (1998) and Return to Bluefin (2009). Additionally, he wrote television pilots for CBS and ABC and several screenplays, including Flights of Angels (1987), A Virgin Year (1991) and Legal Access (1994).

Mr. Coburn lived with his wife, Marsha, in Dallas, Texas. He had two children, Donn and Kimberly, and three grandchildren: Neil, Alexander and Ryan.