Necrology

Thomas Edward Meehan '51

Aug. 14, 1929-Aug. 21, 2017

Thomas Edward Meehan ’51, a three-time Tony Award-winning writer, was born on Aug. 14, 1929, in Ossining, N.Y., a son of the former Helen O’Neil, a nurse, and Thomas Meehan, a businessman. He graduated from Suffern (N.Y.) High School.

On College Hill, Meehan majored in English. He participated with the Charlatans and on the staffs of The Spectator, the Continental, and the Hamiltonian. Meehan was also a member of Theta Delta Chi, where he was known for his “party spirit and endurance,” according to the 1951 Hamiltonian. 

After graduation, Meehan served in the U.S. Army and after discharge began a career as a writer for The New Yorker’s famed “Talk of the Town” section. In 1962, he wrote a short story titled “Yma Dream” that caught the attention of Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks, who teamed to work with Meehan on a television sketch comedy adaptation that earned an Emmy Award.

The connections made at The New Yorker proved even more fruitful a decade later when lyricist Martin Charnin approached Meehan asking if he might want to work on a musical. The writer was enthusiastic until he heard Charnin’s idea — adapt the comic strip Little Orphan Annie for the stage. “You’ve got to be kidding,” was Meehan’s initial, and succinct, reply. But he eventually opted to give it a try and the resulting smash hit, Annie, would earn Meehan the first of three Tony Awards.

For Meehan success came relatively late in his career. He was 47 when he made his Broadway debut in 1977. Ten years later, Meehan and Brooks teamed to write the sci-fi blockbuster movie Spaceballs. That partnership would pave the way for the duo’s 2001 Broadway hit, The Producers, a musical that would go on to win a record-breaking 13 Tony Awards.

Meehan had now established himself as the go-to guy for a musical in need of a script. Another Tony statue followed in 2002 with the stage adaptation of John Waters’ comedy Hairspray, which Meehan coauthored with fellow book writer Mark O’Donnell.

Meehan earned a fourth Tony nomination in 2008 for penning the book to Cry-Baby. Other writing credits included the musical versions of Elf, Young Frankenstein, and Chaplin. Although his final project to reach Broadway was the stage adaptation of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky, the writer was busy up until his death. His latest project was a stage adaptation of a yet-to-be-revealed comedy classic co-written with composer-lyricist Maury Yeston.

The prolific Meehan holds the honor of being the only writer of the books for three Broadway shows to run for more than 2,000 performances — Annie (2,377), The Producers (2,502), and Hairspray (2,642). In 2012, he had the distinction of having three productions running on Broadway concurrently: Annie, Elf, and Chaplin.

In a New York Times obituary, Meehan’s wife, Carolyn, remarked that her husband had always been astounded by his success. She shared a story about how, after picking up his Tony Award for Annie from the engravers, he took it to Sardi’s restaurant and just sat there with it, still in its brown paper wrapper, amazed at his good fortune. That “party spirit and endurance” noted in the College yearbook proved prophetic after all. 

Ever grateful to his alma mater, he established the endowed Thomas E. Meehan Prize in Creative Writing, awarded to students each spring. In 2002, Hamilton presented Meehan with an honorary degree. “As a student on this Hill, you fell in love with Faulkner and sought to write in his vein,” the citation noted. “But somehow, your sense of humor kept getting in the way. It turned out to be your true métier, leading you on a path, with many twists and turns, to outstanding achievement.”

Thomas E. Meehan died on Aug. 21, 2017, at his home in Greenwich Village. He was 88. In addition to his wife, the former Carolyn Capstick, whom he had married in 1988, he is survived by two children, three stepchildren, and six grandchildren, including Lily Capstick ’18. An earlier marriage to wife Karen had ended in divorce.

Return to Search Results