Percy Granger, 51; Playwright, Screenwriter

Playwright Percy Granger, whose first production on Broadway was “Eminent Domain” in 1982, has died. He was 51.

Granger died Monday afternoon in Manhattan of a second heart attack.

In September 1992, as he was riding a bicycle to an off-Broadway theater mounting another of his plays, Granger had a heart attack. A lack of oxygen to his brain between the collapse and treatment led to widespread brain damage.

Born in Norman, Okla., Granger graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1967. His first play, “The Complete Works of Studs Edsel,” was produced in 1972 to good reviews in Washington, D.C. Later, it was presented at Manhattan’s Ensemble Studio Theater, of which Granger was a founding member.

When Granger’s “Eminent Domain” was performed at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre in San Diego in 1986, a Times critic praised the script.

“Granger seems to have laid out his drama, ‘Eminent Domain,’ on a coffee table, sentence by careful sentence, painstakingly piecing together childhood observations of his parents--a literature professor and an artist--into a letter-perfect drama.”

Other Granger plays include “Scheherezade,” “The Dolphin Position” and “Vivien,” which was part of a One-Act Play Festival at Lincoln Center.

His last complete play, “Coyote Hanging on a Barbed Wire Fence,” was to have premiered on Broadway at Circle in the Square in 1993, but his heart attack left him unable to continue.

Granger wrote for Radio Mystery Theater, was one of the creators of the daytime drama “Loving,” and contributed to “As the World Turns.” His screenplays include “My Brother’s Wife” and “The Comeback.”