The Associated Press via The Daily Freeman reported Monday that 80-year-old playwright Romulus Linney died Sat., Jan. 15, at his home in Germantown. Linney's wife Laura Callanan told AP the playwright died of lung cancer. From the AP story:

"Linney, father of actress Laura Linney, wrote more than 30 plays that covered a number of subjects. Some of his works were set in Appalachia, which he was familiar with through his youth growing up in the South. Others were historical dramas, some looking at moments in time like the Nuremberg trials or the Vietnam war and others taken from the lives of public figures like the poet Lord Byron or Frederick II, a king of Prussia."

Linney's work appeared mainly in regional theater and off-Broadway, with one play appearing on Broadway. He also taught at Columbia and Princeton universities, Hunter College, and The New School. The YouTube video above includes Linney, Austin Pendleton, and Kristina Valada-Viars discussing Mr. Linney's "Love Drunk" during rehearsals for its production at Abingdon Theatre Company, March 2009.