Hugh Leonard
Hugh Leonard ( born November 9, 1926 in Dalkey, County Dublin, Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown today, † February 12, 2009 in Dublin) was an Irish playwright and journalist. His real name was John Keyes Byrne.
Life
His first play, The Big Birthday Suit 1956 was listed in the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. In the following years his literary activity was very fruitful. He wrote eighteen other plays. He also published two autobiographical works, Home Before Night (1979) and Out After Dark (1989).
Until 2006, he wrote a regular column in the Sunday Independent entitled The Curmudgeon.
In 1977 him the Tony Award was awarded As for his play, a comedy about his youth and his adoptive father.
Hugh Leonard last lived in his birthplace of Dalkey in Dublin.