About this episode
Today we're talking about Horton Foote (1916-2009), the award-winning playwright and screenwriter. In the recently released documentary Horton Foote: The Road to Home , the celebrated screenwriter Anne Rapp helps us to learn more about this unsung Texas and American legend. Foote was born and raised in Wharton, Texas, and he went on to become a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, the winner of two Academy Awards for screenwriting, an Emmy Award for television writing, and was a recipient of the National Medal of Arts among numerous other theatrical and literary prizes. His best known works are the Oscar-winning screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Tender Mercies (1983). Ann Rapp met Foote on the set of Tender Mercies , where she worked as a screenplay supervisor. She developed a life-long friendship with this unsung gentleman playwright. With this documentary, she wants to share with everybody her inside look into Foote's humanity, integrity and empathy that played into his work during his whole life. “To be a good writer, you don’t have to be educated, you don’t even need to speak good grammar. If you are an observer and a listener, and you find a voice to reflect that, then you can write. Horton was the best listener I've ever known.” - Anne Rapp