Following his death from Parkinson's disease and related dementia, his four children issued a statement that reads: “Dad died peacefully with his family around him. He gave and inspired great love, drew us out and showed us how the world really is.”

Born in July 1933 in Wakefield, England, Storey's first professional success was as a novelist, winning the Somerset Maugham Fiction Award for This Sporting Life, which was published in 1960 and concerned a miner who became a rugby player. His other novels included The Flight Into Camden, Radcliffe, Pasmore, and Saville, which won Britain's prestigious Man Booker Prize in 1976.

It was as a playwright, however, for which Storey was perhaps best known; the first notable staging of one of his plays, The Restoration of Arthur Middleton, was presented by the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh in 1966. The drama, concerning a troubled schoolteacher, later transferred to London, where Mr. Storey also enjoyed successes with In Celebration, The Contractor, and Home—the latter of which transferred to Broadway.

Storey earned Tony nominations for both of his Broadway outings: the aforementioned Home, which opened in 1970 starring John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Mona Washbourne, and The Changing Room, which played the Morosco Theatre in 1973 with a cast that included George Hearn and John Lithgow.

Storey, who drew on his life for his many works, was awarded New York Drama Critics' Circle Best Play prize for The Changing Room, Home, and The Contractor. His later stage offerings included Early Days, which was presented in 1980 and starred Ralph Richardson as an elderly politician, and Stages, which played London's National Theatre in 2002.

He also enjoyed success on screen; Storey received a 1964 BAFTA Award nomination for Best British Screenplay for the film adaptation of This Sporting Life.

His wife, Barbara Hamilton, predeceased him in 2015; he is survived by his four children: Helen, Kate, Jake, and Sean, his brother Anthony, and six grandchildren.