Scriptwriting coach, playwright Lee Horvitz dies at 66

LEE HORVITZ, a screenwriter and produced playwright who made New Orleans his home since 2003, died suddenly and unexpectedly on Thursday, July 23, while enjoying the sights and sounds of his beloved Vieux Carré after dark. He was 66 at the time he suffered what authorities believe was a massive heart attack.

Lee Horvitz

An actor who originally hailed from Los Altos on the San Francisco peninsula, Horvitz attended the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater in New York, studying under legendary acting coach Sanford Meisner and his protegé William Esper. Horvitz toured the country playing Shakespeare and was an important figure in the founding of the Oakland Ensemble Theatre, the only African-American Actors’ Equity theatrical company in the San Francisco area.

A brilliant student, Horvitz went on to study philosophy and earned a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. He became steeped in the local community activism of Evanston and the politics of nearby Chicago. One of his proudest moments was when he was part of the team that helped elect Harold Washington as the first African-American mayor of Chicago.

Horvitz was hired to teach philosophy as a member of the faculty at Miami University in Ohio for more than a decade as an assistant professor.  He was a noted book reviewer and also took time to help edit professional manuscripts. While teaching he reviewed professional manuscripts and wrote book reviews, encouraging his students to write creatively.

Horvitz grew restless with the academic lifestyle and left his teaching career in order to dedicate himself to his own writing opportunities.  He began to write book reviews, travel articles, business spotlights and public relations materials in 2001, sharpening his critical eye on the arts, most specifically on theatre. It was then he began writing more exclusively for the stage and screen.

Following his move to New Orleans, he continued to write copy for magazines as well as humanities textbooks. He was a sought-after writer and editor for several publications, but channeled much of his energies as the managing editor of Travelhost of New Orleans. He was a featured writer for Arthur Hardy’s Mardi Gras Guide and also wrote for Louisiana Film and Video.

Horvitz wrote the book for a “Popera” titled blueS alleY caT that began taking shape in 2000 and enjoyed a successful one-month run in 2003 at the School for the Performing Arts in the historic Over-the-Rhine  arts district in Cincinnati in which it was set.

Two events had profound effects on Horvitz in 2005. His younger brother Philip, a performance artist and choreographer, died suddenly on a cross-country commercial flight from New York to Oakland, where he was slated to perform a series of shows in San Francisco. Then, less than four months later, Hurricane Katrina struck the city.

As the recovery period began, Horvitz turned more to scriptwriting. He worked as a script analyst and completed three feature-length screenplays. He also produced the short film “Blood Line,” co-written with Alex Asefa, and was credited as a co-writer on another short film with Asefa, “On Time.” released in 2009. He had a small role in the short film he co-wrote, “Checkmate,” and also worked on it as a sound recordist. He was also listed as a co-writer in the 2014 release “Rebels without Causes.”

Horvitz led the New Orleans Independent Screenwriters and offered classes at the JCC and the New Orleans Spiritual and Healing Center is screenwriting for film and video. He was featured in an article that ran in the CCJN last year.

Horvitz was engaged to be married in 2006 to Jessica Lou Hawk, a girlfriend from Cincinnati who had made the journey with him to New Orleans. However, the couple broke up in 2007 and Hawk took up a separate residence in the Bywater neighborhood. Tragically, she was found dead in August of 2008 in her apartment, the victim of a violent knife attack. That attack remained unsolved for  nearly six years. Horvitz, family and friends led a tireless “Justice for Jessica” campaign and dedicated a garden on the neutral ground at St. Claude and Press Streets to her memory along with plaques, markers, benches and flowerbeds. Horvitz lovingly tended to that garden every week since its dedication on the one-year anniversary of her death.

Horvitz is survived by his two brothers, Bill of Sonoma County in CA. and Wayne of Seattle.

A memorial to honor him was held in the Jessica Hawk Garden and at Vaughn’s Pub of the New Orleans Athletic Club on the afternoon of September 12.