He was brilliant and prolific, breathing life and passion into such memorable characters as Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski in his critically acclaimed A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. And like them, he was troubled and self-destructive, an abuser of alcohol and drugs. He was awarded four Drama Critic Circle Awards, two Pulitzer Prizes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was derided by critics and blacklisted by Roman Catholic Cardinal Spellman, who condemned one of his scripts as “revolting, deplorable, morally repellent, offensive to Christian standards of decency.” He was Tennessee Williams, one of the greatest playwrights in American history.
Born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911, Tennessee was the son of a shoe company executive and a Southern belle. Williams described his childhood in Mississippi as happy and carefree. This sense of belonging and comfort were lost, however, when his family moved to the urban environment of St. Louis, Missouri. It was there he began to look inward, and to write— “because I found life unsatisfactory.” Williams’ early adult years were occupied with attending college at three different universities, a brief stint working at his father’s shoe company, and a move to New Orleans, which began a lifelong love of the city and set the locale for A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE.
Williams spent a number of years traveling throughout the country and trying to write. His first critical acclaim came in 1944 when THE GLASS MENAGERIE opened in Chicago and went to Broadway. It won a the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and, as a film, the New York Film Critics’ Circle Award. At the height of his career in the late 1940s and 1950s, Williams worked with the premier artists of the time, most notably Elia Kazan, the director for stage and screen productions of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, and the stage productions of CAMINO REAL, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, and SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH. Kazan also directed Williams’ film BABY DOLL. Like many of his works, BABY DOLL was simultaneously praised and denounced for addressing raw subject matter in a straightforward realistic way.
The 1960s were perhaps the most difficult years for Williams, as he experienced some of his harshest treatment from the press. In 1961 he wrote THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, and in 1963, THE MILK TRAIN DOESN’T STOP HERE ANY MORE. His plays, which had long received criticism for openly addressing taboo topics, were finding more and more detractors. Around this time, Williams’ longtime companion, Frank Merlo, died of cancer. Williams began to depend more and more on alcohol and drugs and though he continued to write, completing a book of short stories and another play, he was in a downward spiral. In 1969 he was hospitalized by his brother.
After his release from the hospital in the 1970s, Williams wrote plays, a memoir, poems, short stories and a novel. In 1975 he published MEMOIRS, which detailed his life and discussed his addiction to drugs and alcohol, as well as his homosexuality. In 1980 Williams wrote CLOTHES FOR A SUMMER HOTEL, based on the lives of Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Only three years later, Tennessee Williams died in a New York City hotel filled with half-finished bottles of wine and pills. It was in this desperation, which Williams had so closely known and so honestly written about, that we can find a great man and an important body of work. His genius was in his honesty and in the perseverance to tell his stories.
R.H. — Many of his characters are alcoholics, so the depth of those characters would have been missing had he not had alcohol problems himself. Sometimes it is painful to be creative. That’s why so many musicians and artists abuse drugs or alcohol. I don’t think he would have been a worse or better playwright without the alcohol. His work would surely have been different, though.
A Streetcar Named Desire is pretty much boscrey
The author of the article above did an excellent job portraying the man and his work. Williams touched many taboo subjects–not only homosexuality, and I’m thrilled at the plays the author of the article chose to mention. Williams short stories are awesome to–raw and honest. I think Williams really had a handle on the true nature of humanity.
I read A Streetcar Named Desire for my college theater class. It made Brando a name to be known. And for good reason. Stanley Kowalski, is as human as the next guy. the characters are dynamic and the atmosphere unique. It reminds me of some of quetin tarantino’s stuff.
The ending suprised me to be quite honest. That’s always good.
i love tennessee williams he’s the best writer
Alcoholism has ruined so many lives and especially creative peoples lives. Thank God for programs like AA, Alanon, and Adult Children of alcoholics
Ciprina Spizzirri, an American actress gives an outstanding performance in Tennessee William’s, Suddenly Last Summer, performed at Questors theatre, London. Superb! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIL_yiu9Wcs
It is said that Suddenly Last Summer was the closest autobiography of Tennessee Williams. Not many people know that Tennessee William’s had a close relationship with his sister who was lobotomized. Catharine in Suddenly Last summer is allegedly a character that sheds a similar resemblance to Tennessee Williams real life sister. It’s a fantastic playwright. I think if Tennessee Williams were still alive he would have wanted Catharine to be seen as a bit narcotic and traumatized as seen being performed by American Actress, Ciprina Spizzirri.
His work was outstanding then and is the same today. I hope future generations will find his works as brilliant as my generation, (1951-present). TMC is the only network that I know that airs his work consistently. His was a great writer and a very interesting person.
I have studied, performed, directed, and taught the works of TW often over the past many years, since 1975 when I was a sophomore Theatre student at the University of Utah. I am always thrilled to introduce my many friends (his plays) to my students. We study and go into depth with each one. My students that are not from this country are particularly interested in STREETCAR. They identify with the Spanish overtones of the Angel of Death lurking near Blanche throughout the play, especially towards the end before, during, and after her rape. I treasure TW’s works all the more as I get older and I recently re-read his MEMOIRS and found them to be not only entertaining, but so telling about his torn up soul as he tried to avoid totally going over the edge into the sanctity of insanity. His tribute to his sister is most touching, just as it was when Laura first appeared in MENAGERIE in 1944-45 as she asked through her tears, to the Gentleman Caller, “You won’t call again?” It breaks my heart every time I read that. Happy Birthday Tenn March 26th, 1911 and your death date of February 24, 1983 will never be forgotten as we all mourned his passing. He suffered, he wrote, and he never gave up. Yes, he was a bit sensitive with his health, but he needed that to hold on to. He is the finest playwright America has ever produced, bar none, not even O’Neill. He was cheated of the Nobel Prize in the early 50’s as his work qualified him to win that accolade. I will continue to read and re-read all I can get about his life and works. I find EVERYONE ELSE IS AN AUDIENCE by Ronald Hayman to be quite reliable and revealing. I highly recommend that one. Also do not forget to read his short plays: I CAN’T IMAGINE TOMORROW and THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMED, both are rare gems.
I have studied, performed, directed, and taught the works of TW often over the past many years, since 1975 when I was a sophomore Theatre student at the University of Utah. I am always thrilled to introduce my many friends (his plays) to my students. We study and go into depth with each one. My students that are not from this country are particularly interested in STREETCAR. They identify with the Spanish overtones of the Angel of Death lurking near Blanche throughout the play, especially towards the end before, during, and after her rape. I treasure TW’s works all the more as I get older and I recently re-read his MEMOIRS and found them to be not only entertaining, but so telling about his torn up soul as he tried to avoid totally going over the edge into the sanctity of insanity. His tribute to his sister is most touching, just as it was when Laura first appeared in MENAGERIE in 1944-45 as she asked through her tears, to the Gentleman Caller, “You won’t call again?” It breaks my heart every time I read that. Happy Birthday Tenn March 26th, 1911 and your death date of February 24, 1983 will never be forgotten as we all mourned his passing. He suffered, he wrote, and he never gave up. Yes, he was a bit sensitive with his health, but he needed that to hold on to. He is the finest playwright America has ever produced, bar none, not even O’Neill. He was cheated of the Nobel Prize in the early 50’s as his work qualified him to win that accolade. I will continue to read and re-read all I can get about his life and works. I find EVERYONE ELSE IS AN AUDIENCE by Ronald Hayman to be quite reliable and revealing. I highly recommend that one. Also do not forget to read his short plays: I CAN’T IMAGINE TOMORROW and THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMED, both are rare gems.
Yikes. What a perverted guy with a persistently perverted mind. It’s through “revolutionary” writers/playwrights like him that our society is now so morally decrepit.
To April 7, 2012, Saf:
Dear Saf who writes “perverted guy” “playwrights like him that our society is now so morally decrepit.” :
You certainly do not know what you are talking about!! TW is no more of a “perverted guy” than you are in saying such inane and empty-headed statements like these. Try reading the beauty of the English language in literature and get your moral compass out of your muddled head. Tennessee Williams is one of the finest American writers of the 20th century and anyone who thinks otherwise is either a child or simply uninformed. I will give you another chance to try reading for beauty, and not the filth that is NOT there.
I am blanche
i rember comming home one night (12-13 yrs old) had a 13′ bk/wht tv in my bed room, turned it on and marlon brando was standing in the street screeming “stela”……… i was mesmerized. fell in love with brando and read every thing i could got my hands on by TW. one of my favorite qoutes by TW is: “i was drunk with delight.”
i consider tennesse williams a national treasure.
Thank you Tennessee for giving me my Thesis, you made my dream come true and your characters made me understand life’s miseries. You gave me the ability to see other human beings in a deepest way. I’m also Blanche Dubois…
When my mother asked mr why I like Tennessee Williams so much as his plays feature crazy women I told her that they reminded me of her. I am gay, and before I came out and fell in love with Richard I felt like the character Ms Alma.