November 27, 1953

On this day in 1953, Irish American playwright Eugene O’Neill died at the age of 65. O’Neill was fittingly born in a Broadway hotel room to Irish immigrant actor James O’Neill and Mary Ellen Quinlan. He grew up around the stage and while at boarding school, he surrounded himself with books. After a long depression and battle with alcoholism and a recovery from tuberculosis, O’Neill decided to dedicate his life to writing plays. O’Neill’s first published play “Beyond the Horizon” opened on Broadway in 1920 to great acclaim. He was awarded his first Pulitzer Prize for Drama, with two more to follow. In 1936, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.