Williams Tennessee
USABiography of Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams, known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American prose writer and playwright. He was born on March 26, 1911, in Columbus, Mississippi, USA. He adopted the pseudonym Tennessee at the beginning of his literary career. The characters of the Wingfield family in his play "The Glass Menagerie" (1945) were based on his own family: a strict and critical father who accused his son of lacking courage, a dominant mother who took excessive pride in the family's social status, and a sister named Rose who suffered from depression. Determined to escape a life of drudgery, which seemed inevitable due to the family's limited financial means, Williams led a bohemian lifestyle, wandering from one exotic place to another, such as New Orleans, Mexico, Key West, and Santa Monica. His early play "Battle of Angels" (1940) revolves around a typical collision: in the stifling atmosphere of a stagnant town, three women are drawn to a wandering poet. Williams' most famous play is "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947).
Williams' plays have attracted the attention of filmmakers, and among the numerous adaptations of his works, the most popular ones include Elia Kazan's 1951 film version of "A Streetcar Named Desire" featuring Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, as well as Richard Brooks' production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1958), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. Williams was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Screenplay twice - in 1952 for "A Streetcar Named Desire" and in 1957 for Elia Kazan's film "Baby Doll," based on his one-act plays "Twenty-Seven Wagons Full of Cotton" and "The Long Stay Dinner."
In his candid memoir "Memoirs" (1975), Williams openly and self-deprecatingly wrote about his homosexuality. Tennessee Williams passed away in New York on February 25, 1983. His death was the result of accidentally inhaling the cap of a spray he used to treat a cold.
