Herlihy, James Leo

▪ 1994

      U.S. novelist, playwright, and actor (b. Feb. 27, 1927, Detroit, Mich.—d. Oct. 21, 1993, Los Angeles, Calif.), specialized in portraying troubled adolescents and characters living on the fringe of society in novels brimming with gritty realism, including All Fall Down (1960; film 1962) and Midnight Cowboy (1965; film 1969). He began writing short stories after graduating from high school. He attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied the arts, before finding a niche in the theatre. After attending (1948-50) Pasadena (Calif.) Playhouse College of the Theater, he appeared (1948-52) on West Coast stages in some 50 roles. Meanwhile, Herlihy's first play, Streetlight Sonata, was produced (1950) in Pasadena, followed by Moon in Capricorn (1953) in New York City and Blue Denim (1958, with William Noble), which premiered on Broadway. His brilliantly woven tales were laced with elements of the bizarre and the grotesque and contained masterful characterizations and biting dialogue. He used a diary form in such works as A Story That Ends with a Scream, and Eight Others (1967), which contains a profile about an institutionalized homicidal maniac, and his last novel, The Season of the Witch (1971), about a young woman who runs away to New York City with her homosexual next-door neighbour. Herlihy died from an overdose of sleeping pills.

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