Biography
Scott McPherson, born in Columbus, Ohio, was an actor and playwright who lived and worked in Chicago. His first full-length play, Till the Fat Lady Sings, was directed by Eric Simonson at Lifeline Theatre in Chicago in 1987 and received a Joseph Jefferson Citation for Best New Work. His one-act play, Scraped, premiered in a Chicago New Plays production at the Organic Theatre. Marvin’s Room was Scott’s second and last full-length play and has been performed throughout the United States and around the world including, Australia, Canada, Slovakia, Turkey, Israel, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Finland, Sweden and Mexico. Marvin’s Room premiered at the Goodman Theatre Studio in February 1990 and went on to the Hartford Stage, Playwrights Horizons and Minetta Lane in New York, London’s West End and the Tiffany Theatre in Los Angeles. For his work on Marvin’s Room, Scott received the 1990 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Play, the 1991 Whiting Writer’s Award and, posthumously, the 1992 George Oppenheimer Award, 1993 Robby Award and the 1994 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award. Scott also wrote television shows for the Fox Television Network, WGN-TV and NBC. He wrote the film adaptation of Marvin’s Room, a Miramax release, produced by Scott Rudin and starring Robert DeNiro, Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gwen Verdon and Hume Cronyn. Scott died of AIDS on November 7, 1992.
