Tennessee Williams Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Tennessee Williams
OCCUPATION: Playwright
BIRTH DATE: March 26, 1911
DEATH DATE: February 25, 1983
EDUCATION: Soldan High School, University City High School, University of Missouri, University of Iowa
PLACE OF BIRTH: Columbus, Mississippi
PLACE OF DEATH: New York City, New York
Originally: Thomas Lanier Williams III
Full Name: Tennessee Williams

Best Known For

Tennessee Williams was an American writer, whose signature works include A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Glass Menagerie.

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Tennessee Lanier Williams

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Other work followed, including a gig writing scripts for MGM. But Williams' mind was never far from the stage. On March 31, 1945, a play he'd been working for some years, The Glass Menagerie, opened on Broadway.

Critics and audiences alike lauded the play, about a declassed Southern family living in a tenement, forever changing Williams' life and fortunes. Two years later, A Streetcar Named Desire, opened,

surpassing his previous success and cementing his status as one of the country's best playwrights. The play also earned Williams a Drama Critics' Award and his first Pulitzer Prize.

His subsequent work brought more praise. The hits from this period included Camino Real, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Sweet Bird of Youth.

Later Years

The 1960s were a difficult time for Williams. His work received poor reviews and increasingly the playwright turned to alcohol and drugs as coping mechanisms. In 1969 his brother hospitalized him.

Upon his release, Williams got right back to work. He churned out several new plays as well as Memoirs in 1975, which told the story of his life and his afflictions.

But he never fully escaped his demons. Surrounded by bottles of wine and pills, Williams died in a New York City hotel room on February 25, 1983.