Former Czech President and Playwright Václav Havel Dies at 75

Playwright Václav Havel passed away, according to a spokesperson. He was 75 years old.

Born in Prague in 1936, Havel began working in theater as a stagehand at the Theater on the Balustrade and studied drama by correspondence at the Theater Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU).

His first publicly-performed full-length play was 1963's The GArden Party. Following the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 he was banned from the theater. He became more politically active, becoming one of the founding members and architects of Charter 77, and co-founding the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Persecuted in 1979.

His political activities resulted in government persecution and numerous prison sentences. His leadership during the Velvet Revolution in November of 1989, which accomplished a bloodless overthrow of the Communist government of Czechoslovakia, led to his selection as President of Czechoslovakia, a post which he retained in the free elections of 1990. After the separation of the Czech and Slovak Republics, Havel was elected president of the Czech Republic in 1993, and served in that post for ten years.

President Havel has received numerous awards and honors, including the 1994 Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the 2003 International Gandhi Peace Prize, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003. He has authored over 30 plays, collections of poetry, and books.

Havel's prolific career in writing included The Memorandum, Leaving, The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, and Temptation.