Robert Patrick

Robert Patrick born 27 September 1937

Robert Patrick is a playwright, poet, lyricist, and short story writer and novelist. He was born Robert Patrick O'Connor in Kilgore, Texas.

Robert Patrick is the author of over 60 plays. The first of these, The Haunted Host, was produced in 1964 and Patrick was actually forced to appear in the play himself with fellow playwright William M. Hoffman because he could find no actors willing to appear in a gay-themed drama.

During the 1960s Patrick was a pioneer in the Off-Off Broadway movement and gay theatre, with over 300 productions of his plays being held during this decade in Manhattan alone. He won the 'Show Business' Award in 1969 for Joyce Dynel, Salvation Army, and Fog. That same year his play, Camera Obscura was produced on PBS. A 1974 production of Haunted Host marked the debut of Harvey Fierstein.

Years later, Fierstein included a recording of Patrick's monologue, Pouf Positive on his CD, This Isn't Going to Be Pretty. Positive was also filmed by Dov Hechtman in 1989. The year 1974 also saw international success for the play Kennedy's Children, earning actress Shirley Knight a Tony award, and also the first season of gay theatre in the UK, to which Mr Patrick contributed three plays. My Cup Ranneth Over (1976) was commissioned by Marlo Thomas, who co-starred in the play with Lily Tomlin. It became the most produced of his plays.

Other works by Robert Patrick include Untold Decades (1988), a history of gay male life in the US told in a humorous vein, and Temple Slave, about the early days of Off-Off Broadway and gay theatre. He has also ghostwritten several screen- and television plays, contributed poems and reviews to various magazines, and had his short stories included in numerous anthologies. He has also appeared in the documentary Resident Alien with Quentin Crisp.

He has most recently written his memoirs, Film Moi. Robert Patrick currently lives and works in Los Angeles, where he has lived since 1993.

Click here for Caffe Cino Picture Pages - hundreds of images from the early days of off-off-Broadway and gay theatre.

Robert Patrick website