kassyny · Public domain
Arthur Laurents
American playwright, theatre director and screenwriter
1917 – 2011aged 93
Wrote the books for West Side Story and Gypsy, two musicals that reshaped what a Broadway show could do with dance and dramatic tension, and won a Tony for writing Hallelujah, Baby! He also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, on Hitchcock's Rope and on The Way We Were, which brought him one of his two Academy Award nominations.