Friedman was born to a
Jewish family in New York City, the second son of Leonard and Madeline (Uris) Friedman; his elder brother,
B. H. Friedman, also became a writer. A 1945 graduate of the
Horace Mann School, and in the same class as his lifelong friend
Allard K. Lowenstein, Friedman earned his BFA from the
Carnegie Institute of Technology. From 1951 to 1953, he served in the
US Army as a military policeman in
Korea, where he was awarded a
Bronze Star. He taught writing at the
Juilliard School and at SAGE. He was a friend to many noted artists, among them
Lee Krasner and
Fritz Bultman, and for several years Friedman was the companion of the noted American poet, translator, and critic
Richard Howard. Howard dedicated his poem "1915: A Pre-Raphaelite Ending, London" to him. Friedman also was active off-Broadway as a writer and producer, collaborating with actor
Howard Da Silva; author
Ben Maddow; and playwright Arnold Perl. Perl's play "Tevya and his Daughters" (1957) -- co-produced by Friedman and starring
Mike Kellin as Sholem Aleichem's dairyman—was the inspiration for "
Fiddler on the Roof (1964)." In 1968, Friedman signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. Friedman died of a heart attack in his Manhattan apartment on April 20, 2010. ==Awards and honors==