Romulus Linney, scholar, teacher, playwright dad of Laura Linney

NEW YORK - Romulus Linney, a prolific playwright whose work ranged from stories set in Appalachia to the Nuremberg trials, has died in New York. He was 80.

Linney's wife, Laura Callanan, said that the playwright died Saturday at his home in upstate Germantown, N.Y., of lung cancer.

Linney, father of actress Laura Linney, wrote more than 30 plays that covered a number of subjects. Some of his works were set in Appalachia, of which he was familiar, having grown up in the South. Others were historical dramas, some looking at moments in time, like the Nuremberg trials or the Vietnam war, and others taken from the lives of public figures.

Linney also had the ability to write the voice of women particularly well, Callanan said.

"When I first saw his plays as a student years ago, walking in you wouldn't know if the playwright was a man or woman," she said yesterday.

Most of Linney's work appeared in regional theater and off-Broadway, with one play appearing in a Broadway theater.

He also taught at schools including Columbia and Princeton universities, Hunter College and The New School.

Callanan said that he had been working on a novel at the time of his death, and had completed the libretto for an opera based on one of his plays.

Linney's first two marriages ended in divorce. He is also survived by another daughter, Susan Linney.