Horton Foote was born on March 14, 1916, in Wharton, Texas, to Albert and Hallie Foote. Foote is one of America's most prolific and well-known stage, television, and screen writers. As a young man, Foote pursued the stage as a performer and published his first play while he was working as an actor in 1939. From 1933 to 1935, he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse School of Theatre, and from 1937 to 1939, he attended the Tamara Darkarhovna School of Theatre. Foote later worked as an elevator man on Park Avenue and a teacher prior to starting a Washington D.C. theatre school and theatre with his wife and theatrical producer, Lillian Vallish. Foote married Vallish in 1945; the couple had four children.

Following their time in Washington D.C., the Footes returned to New York, where eventually Foote's career took off. Some of his plays are Laura Dennis (1996), Taking Pictures (1996), Night Seasons (1996), and...