Biography

Roi Cooper Megrue (June 12, 1882 – February 27, 1927) was an American playwright, producer, and director active on Broadway from 1914 to 1921. Roi Cooper Megrue was born on June 12, 1882, in New York City, the son of the son of Frank Newton Megrue, a stockbroker, and Stella Georgiana Cooper.He attended Trinity School (New York City) and graduated (A.B.) in 1903 from Columbia University, where he engaged in college theatricals. He wrote the libretto for The Isle of Illusia, an all-male operetta that included a caricature of Clyde Fitch, of whom Megrue became a close friend.At Columbia he met, and became a friend, of future Broadway actor Ralph Morgan.Cooper worked with Elisabeth Marbury as a play broker before starting his career as playwright. He had a key role in the Dramatists Guild.In 1917 he co-produced the first Pulitzer Prize-winner, Why Marry?. The 1921 play Honors Are Even is Megrue's final Broadway credit; the play was not well received by Dorothy Parker, who said it was sweet, clean, wholesome and... dull. His last work was the 1925 adaptation of Venice for Two from the French play by Sacha Guitry.

He never married and died on February 27, 1927, in New York City. According to the obituary on Variety, his "affectionate relationship with his mother was epic" and they shared an artistically furnished apartment. He is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) with his mother.

The Roi Cooper Megrue Scholarship is awarded annually to a self-supporting student in Columbia College who, in the opinion of the Trustees, merits the award because of qualities of industry, ambition and intelligence.