N. Richard Nash; Playwright and Screenwriter

N. Richard Nash, 87, playwright and screenwriter best known for his three-act play and subsequent movie “The Rainmaker.” Born Nathan Richard Nusbaum in Philadelphia, Nash first saw his play about the charismatic con man and the love-struck rural spinster produced on Broadway in 1954. It was subsequently translated into 40 languages. The film version, starring Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn, was released by Paramount in 1956. Nash’s story was later made into a Broadway musical, retitled “110 in the Shade,” in 1963. Educated at the University of Pennsylvania, Nash wrote prolifically and also taught philosophy and drama at several institutions, including Bryn Mawr College and Princeton University. Initially a playwright, Nash won an award for his first effort, “Parting at Imsdorf,” in 1940. His Broadway debut was “The Second Best Bed,” a comedy about William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway in 1946. In the late 1940s and the ‘50s, Nash wrote for film as well as the stage, writing screenplays for, among others, “Welcome Stranger,” “Dear Wife,” “The Goldbergs,” “Mara Maru,” and the musical “Porgy and Bess.” By the 1970s, Nash turned to novels, including the best-selling 1977 book on Pearl Harbor, “East Wind, Rain.” That novel was based on thorough research coupled with his experience working for the Office of War Information during World War II. On Dec. 11 in New York.