Joseph Stein, Author of Fiddler on the Roof, Dead at 98

Posted on October 26, 2010

Joseph Stein, the Tony Award-winning author of Fiddler on the Roof and many other Broadway hits has died after a bad fall at his home. He was 98. The New York Times reports:

He died after fracturing his skull in a fall, his son Harry said, adding that his father, an inveterate jokester, had suffered numerous ailments in recent years, including prostate cancer, and used all of them as fodder for humor. "He said he got some of his best material on the way to the grave," Harry Stein said.

Stein co-wrote Take Me Along, based on Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!" which starred Jackie Gleason and Robert Morse, and penned the musical Zorba, based on Zorba the Greek, and well as many other musicals. He was working on a new musical at the time of his death.

He was a great talent. Our condolences to his family.