JONATHAN REYNOLDS Obituary

REYNOLDS--Jonathan, playwright, author, and screenwriter, passed away peacefully on October 27th near New York City. He was a beloved husband, father, and grandfather, and is survived by his wife Heidi Ettinger, sister Nancy, half-brother Donald, sons Frank and Edward, stepsons North, Nash, and Dodge Landesman, and two grandchildren, Charlotte and Walter. Jonathan lived an eventful life, with a deep passion for writing, food, and the performing arts, particularly theater. Born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Jonathan moved to Manhattan as a child and lived his life as a proud New Yorker. He developed a passion for theater at an early age and attended Denison University's undergraduate theater program, followed by the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After working as a producer for the TV shows of David Frost and subsequently Dick Cavett, he wrote his first play in 1974 ("Yanks 3 Detroit 0 Top of the Seventh"), which went on to run for nine months at New York's American Place Theatre. His later play "Geniuses"--produced at Playwright's Horizons--was based on his experience shadowing Francis Ford Coppola on the set of "Apocalypse Now", and led to work as a screenwriter. Jonathan subsequently wrote five produced screenplays, among them "Micki & Maude" and "My Stepmother Is an Alien." In 1997, his next play, "Stonewall Jackson's House", received a Pulitzer recommendation. Ultimately, ten of his plays were produced in New York, including "Fighting International Fat", "Tunnel Fever or the Sheep is Out", and "Girls in Trouble", as well as the books for musicals "Styne After Styne" and a revival of "Whoopee". Throughout his life, Jonathan had an intense love for food and was an accomplished chef. His culinary ardor combined with his writing in early 2000, when he was asked to write a biweekly food column for the New York Times Magazine. His columns were often autobiographical, covering a key event in his life, and how a certain dish was inexorably involved. He combined many of these pieces into a one-man show at the Second Stage Theater in 2003, "Dinner with Demons," in which he cooked a complete meal onstage. He later also combined several of these stories into a book, "Wrestling with Gravy." Jonathan was a caring father to his sons Frank and Edward, and later to his stepsons North, Nash, and Dodge. His greatest joy was to bring groups of people together with good food and conversation, once writing of a family Thanksgiving: "Those were the best times: our house overstuffed with people, the people overstuffed with crisply roasted turkey or goose, pies or plum pudding." He is deeply loved and immensely missed.