On Sunday, April 23, Robert Patrick, a pioneering playwright in the Off Off Broadway movement who later achieved greater renown with the 1975 Broadway production of his play Kennedy’s Children, died in his sleep at home in Los Angeles. He was 85.
Jason Jenn, a longtime friend, and associate, confirmed his demise. Continue reading to discover his cause of death.
Robert Patrick cause of death: How did Robert Patrick die?
Patrick died in his sleep Sunday at his Los Angeles home, according to Jason Jenn, his carer and longtime friend and acquaintance.
Shirley Knight received the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in the Broadway production of Kennedy’s Children, beating out a strong cast that featured Meryl Streep, Mary Beth Hurt, and Lois Nettleton.
Patrick adapted the play, which was about a bunch of old 1960s activists reuniting and reminiscing in a Lower East Side pub, for a 1982 TV movie starring Knight, Jane Alexander, Lindsay Crouse, and Brad Dourif, among others.
Robert Patrick O’Connor was born to migrant laborers in Kilgore, Texas, and later joined the Air Force for a term that was cut short after a poem he sent to a fellow serviceman was discovered. According to Jenn, Patrick followed a handsome young man into the now-legendary Caffe Cino theatre in New York City in 1961, “and found himself in the middle of a rehearsal for a play.”
