A college professor of literature and writing for most of his career at at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
After graduation, he joined the Air Force, serving until 1956.
Attended college on the G.I. Bill.
Began acting at the age of 50.
Father of the Chicago playwright Tracy Letts.
Graduated from Wagoner High School in 1952 in Oklahoma.
He married Billie Gipson in 1958.
He was nominated for a 2007 Joseph Jefferson Award for Cameo Performance for "August: Osage County" at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
Memorial Service for Letts was held on February 28, 2008 at 1:00 pm at Mallett Funeral Home Chapel in Wagoner, Okla.
Parents were Hazel and Haskell Letts.
Received his bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, his master's degree from the University of Tulsa and his doctorate from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was a Fulbright Scholar.
Up until his last few days, he was appearing on Broadway in his son's critically acclaimed drama, "August: Osage County," a production of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company.