Tennessee Williams Biography

Tennessee Williams

At Writers Theatre: A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams was one of the preeminent American dramatists of the 20th century. His major plays include The Glass Menagerie (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award), A Streetcar Named Desire (Pulitzer Proize and New ork Drama Critics' Circle Award), Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo (Tony Award), Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award), Orpheus Descending, Suddenly, Last Summer, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Night of the Iguana (Tony Award), The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore and Vieux Carre. He also wrote the screenplay for the film Baby Doll, a novel titled The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and over seventy one-act plays. Born Thomas Lanier Williams in 1911 to a shoe salesman and a southern belle, Williams grew up in Mississippi and later St. Louis, Missouri. He attended university in Missouri and became interested in theatre, adopting the name Tennessee. Williams died in 1983 at the age of 71.

[Bio as of August 2010]