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Lillian Hellman, a leading US playwright

Playwright Lillian Hellman, who passed on here Saturday, was one of America's leading playwrights. Her best-known plays included ''The Little Foxes'' and ''The Children's Hour.'' Her writings had international political themes such as isolationism and the rise of fascism, in ''Watch on the Rhine'' in 1941 and ''The Searching Wind'' in 1944.

In 1952, she chose to risk jail, blacklisting, and financial ruin rather than cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in its investigation of leftist activity in the United States.