- American Playwright.
- Remembered for "Rain", "Shanghai Gesture" and "The Widow and the Virgin".
- "Rain" was adapted for the stage from the W. Somerset Maugham novel.
- Spent his first 14 years living in Japan.
- Began his writing career as a drama critic for the Minneapolis Daily News.
- Suffered his first stroke on August 14th, 1945 (VJ Day) and spent the next year or so in the hospital. Was recuperating in Gainesville when he suffered a second stroke and soon died.
- Had hoped to finish his play "Foreign Fancy Woman" while in Gainesville.
- Actress Madame Barry-Orlova, who had known Colton for 25 years and had acted in many of his plays, was at his bedside when he died.
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