Well-known playwright, humorist and screenwriter Grigory Gorin died at 7 a.m. Thursday of a heart attack, according to the Culture Ministry. He was 60.
Gorin was for many years affiliated with the Lenkom Theater.
Mark Zakharov, head director of the Lenkom Theater, on Thursday informed the RIA news agency of the playwright's death.
Gorin, whose real name was Grigory Ofshtein, was born March 12, 1940, in Moscow. Following in the footsteps of great Russian dramatists Anton Chekhov and Mikhail Bulgakov, he began his working life as a doctor, only to turn later to the theater.
In 1966, he and writer Arkady Arkanov penned the comedy "Na Vsyu Evropu," or "To All Europe," which made them famous. Gorin subsequently left medicine and became a writer, later publishing a number of plays, short stories, books and films.
For decades, Gurin had a productive professional relationship with Zakharov. Together, they produced such popular films as "Tot Samy Munchausen," or "The One and Only Munchausen," and "Formula Lubvi," or "Formula for Love." Gorin also wrote several hit plays, the best known of which was "Pominalnaya Molitva," or "Requim."
Zakharov was quoted Thursday on the web site Lenta.ru as calling Gorin "the engineer of a new Lenkom" and called the playwright's death "unexpected and horrible. ? Gorin represented a unique force in the arts," Zakharov said. "He was a gifted playwright."
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