US playwright Albee dies at 88

US playwright Edward Albee has died at age 88, his personal assistant says.

US playwright Edward Albee has died at age 88, his personal assistant says. (AAP)

Three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee has died in suburban New York City at age 88.

Albee challenged theatrical convention in masterworks such as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and A Delicate Balance.'

Personal assistant Jackob Holder says Albee died on Friday at his home on Long Island. No cause of death has been given.

Sharp-tongued humour and dark themes were the hallmarks of Albee's style. In more than 25 plays Albee skewered such mainstays of US culture as marriage, child-rearing, religion and upper-class comforts.