(William Grimes’s article appeared in The New York Tims, 9/14; via Pam Green.)
Jack Hofsiss, who became the youngest director to win a Tony Award when, at 28, he was honored for his work on “The Elephant Man” in 1979, and who resumed his career after being paralyzed in a diving accident, died on Tuesday at his home in Manhattan. He was 65.
His sister Christine Schruntek confirmed his death. She did not give a specific cause but said that he had been experiencing respiratory problems for some time.
Mr. Hofsiss was directing for Joe Papp at the Public Theater in New York when he became interested in a play that had been staged in 1977 at the Hampstead Theater in London. Set in Victorian England, the play, by Bernard Pomerance, an American living in London, was based on the true story of the hideously deformed Joseph Merrick and his struggle to adapt to society.