Velvet Revolution Icon Has Died

Vaclav Havel, Czech playwright and former president, dead at 75

'Velvet Revolution' icon was described by President George W. Bush as 'one of liberty's great heroes'

msnbc.com news services

Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright who wove theater into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War, has died. He was 75.

Havel died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic, his assistant Sabina Dancecova said. He was comforted in his last moments by his wife Dagmar a nd several nuns, Reuters reported.

Havel was his country's first democratically elected president after the nonviolent "Velvet Revolution" that ended four decades of repression by a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan."