Israel Horovitz, an influential and often-produced playwright, died Nov. 9 at his home in Manhattan. He was 81.

Mr. Horovitz enjoyed his biggest successes Off Broadway and in regional and European theaters, including at the Gloucester Stage Company in Massachusetts, which he helped found in 1979. His plays gave opportunities to a number of young actors who went on to become successful, including Al Pacino, Marsha Mason, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Klein, among others. Two of his plays made Broadway, and he occasionally tried Hollywood, most notably with the screenplay for the 1982 film “Author! Author!”

Throughout his career, he wrote scores of plays. In 2009, the Barefoot Theater Company in New York organized a celebration of his 70th birthday that involved performances and staged readings of 70 Horovitz plays by theater companies around the world. Nevertheless, his accomplishments were tainted by multiple allegations of sexual misconduct.