Arthur Laurents, Playwright and Director, Dies at 93

R.I.P.: Arthur Laurents, Playwright and Director, Dies at 93

He was highly accomplished in many different roles in entertainment and the arts, but in terms of popular culture everything else takes a back seat to his having written West Side Story. Although he didn't write the lyrics for the songs, he was responsible for bringing Stephen Sondheim into the project for that purpose.

Laurents' play Home of the Brave, although a failure in its Broadway run (69 performances), has been anthologized and honored as one of the great American plays of the 1940s. Yes, that's right, Laurents just died yesterday, but he wrote an acclaimed play 66 years ago.

That's a full life.