Tennessee Williams

American playwright (1911-1983) · United States · Writers · Died at 71

Tennessee Williams is read about 2,266 times a day, in 78 languages.

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He turned the American South into a theater of longing - humid nights, faded gentility, desire pressed against restraint. A Streetcar Named Desire alone secured the claim, but he kept delivering: The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Night of the Iguana.

Writers Writer / Author Theatre Fiction Screenwriting Poetry Literature United States

A life in dates

1983Died25 February 19831980Presidential Medal of FreedomAward1979Kennedy Center HonorsAward1977“Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.”In their words"I am widely regarded as the ghost of a writer," (1977), from New Selected Essays: Where I Live, ed. John S. Bak and John Lahr (NewRead the whole statement

1974St. Louis Literary AwardAward1959“I don't ask for your pity, but just for your understanding - not even that - no. Just for your recognition of me in you, and the enemy, time, in us all.”In their wordsSweet Bird of Youth, Act 3 (1959)Read the whole statement

1956“The theatre is a place where one has time for the problems of people to whom one would show the door if they came to one's office for a job.”In their wordsFebruary 1956Quoted in "Tennessee Williams" in Profiles (1990) by Kenneth Tynan (first published as a magazine article in February 1956)Read the whole statement

1955Pulitzer Prize for DramaAward1951“Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence.”In their wordsThe Timeless World of Play, an introductory essay to The Rose Tattoo (1951)Read the whole statement

Tony Award for Best PlayAward1948Pulitzer Prize for DramaAward1944“Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth.”In their wordsTom, as Narrator, in Scene OneRead the whole statement

1941“A Prayer for the Wild at Heart That Are Kept in Cages”In their wordsThis is the subtitle of the playRead the whole statement

1911Born26 March 1911

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Williams at age 5 (1916) in Clarksdale, Mississippi

Childhood Home in Columbus, Mississippi

Williams arriving at funeral services for Dylan Thomas in 1953

The first page of Williams's last will and testament

Williams's grave at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis

In their own words 10

Tennessee Williams

10 statements, newest first

Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.
1977, "I am widely regarded as the ghost of a writer," (1977), from New Selected Essays: Where I Live, ed. John S. Bak and John Lahr (New, Own words
I never saw a more beautiful woman, enormous eyes, skin the color of Devonshire cream.
1961, After meeting Anna Magnani, as quoted in Tennessee Williams : Rebellious Puritan (1961) by Nancy Marie Patterson Tischler, p. 175, Own words
I don't ask for your pity, but just for your understanding - not even that - no. Just for your recognition of me in you, and the enemy, time, in us all.
1959, Sweet Bird of Youth, Act 3 (1959), Own words

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Awards

Presidential Medal of Freedom1980

Kennedy Center Honors1979

St. Louis Literary Award1974

Pulitzer Prize for Drama1955

Tony Award for Best Play1951

Pulitzer Prize for Drama1948

Florida Artists Hall of Fame

Star on Playwrights' Sidewalk

Family

Parents

Tennessee Williams

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About this person

Thomas Lanier Williams III wrote his first play in 1930, but fourteen years passed before The Glass Menagerie broke through in 1944. What followed was a run few playwrights match: A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955, Sweet Bird of Youth in 1959, The Night of the Iguana in 1961. His later work pushed toward a new style that audiences didn't follow. Much of the catalog moved to film; he also wrote short stories, poetry, essays, and memoirs. In 1979, four years before his death on February 25, 1983, he entered the American Theater Hall of Fame.

Country

United States

In common with Tennessee

Elizabeth TaylorAlso in Boom! (1968)

Warren BeattyAlso in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961)

Marlon BrandoAlso in The Fugitive Kind (1960)

Katharine HepburnAlso in Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Elia KazanAlso in Baby Doll (1956)

Vivien LeighAlso in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

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