August Wilson Finally Receives a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
His widow will accept the posthumous award for the Pittsburgh-born playwright at the ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
PHOTO COURTESY AUGUST WILSON LEGACY LLC
Nearly 20 years after his death, Pittsburgh-born playwright August Wilson will be honored posthumously with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 7 — at 2:30 p.m. EST — will be livestreamed here.
His widow, Constanza Romero Wilson, will accept the award on his behalf. Joining emcee Angelique Jackson at the ceremony will be Denzel Washington, Danielle Deadwyler and the cast and filmmakers from “The Piano Lesson,” the third of his plays to be adapted for film. It’s streaming now on Netflix.
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Wilson’s star will be the 2,799th added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which has been honoring entertainers with these accolades since 1960 at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles. His star is in the category of Live Theatre/Live Performance. The two-time Pulitzer Prize winner wrote 10 plays in his American Century Cycle, nine of which were set in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. He also won a Tony Award for “Fences” in 1983 and a Tony for best play revival in 2010.
Wilson died of liver cancer at age 60 on Oct. 2, 2005. He’s buried at Greenwood Cemetery in O’Hara, near the graves of other family members.
It’s likely that Wilson will one day also be included in the new Pittsburgh Walk of Fame, which will be placed along The Terminal in the Strip District. Nominations are being accepted through the end of this month for the inaugural class, which is expected to be inducted this fall. August Wilson came in at No. 4 in a reader’s poll conducted by Pittsburgh Magazine on who should be in the inaugural class.
