“The Coming of Something to the Widow Holly”
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Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier Williams III, known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.
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culture · American playwright (1911–1983) · playwright · novelist · screenwriter · poet · writer · also Tennessee Williams, Thomas Lanier Williams III, Thomas Williams, Williams
Born 26 March 1911 · Died 25 February 1983 · Q134262
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2026· 13 entries
BroadwayWorld: SOMETHING CLOUDY, SOMETHING CLEAR to Open at Tennessee Williams Theatre Company
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La Vanguardia: Tennessee Williams, el mito que buscaba en Barcelona mar, sol, arena y “quién sabe”
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East Bay Times: Curtain Calls: Tennessee Williams’ ‘Orpheus Descending’ lands at Oakland Theater Project
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Legacy obituary: Thomas WILLIAMS Obituary (1944 - 2026) - Buford Georgia, GA - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Tribute Archive: James Thomas Williams Obituary | Briscoe-Tonic Funeral Home | Waldorf, MD
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247Sports: Thomas Williams named a starting cornerback at Virginia Tech
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The Georgia Gazette: Thomas Williams — Baldwin County
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Legacy obituary: Thomas Reginald Williams Obituary (2026) - Durham, NC - Clements Funeral & Cremation Services, Inc - Durham
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SMH.com.au: Thomas WILLIAMS Obituary (2026) - Sydney, New South Wales
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Encyclopaedia Britannica: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Tennessee Williams, Drama, Pulitzer Prize
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Keys Weekly Newspapers: Tennessee Williams Theater takes reins to rescue Tropic Cinema
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Public attention spiked: 122,615 Wikipedia readers in one day, 80.7× the usual 1,519, with 7 article edits. Editors noted: Dating maintenance tags: {{When}} {{Clarifyme}} {{Fact}}
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2019· 1 entry
The Mississippi Writers Trail installed a historical marker commemorating William's literary contributions during his namesake festival produced by the City of Clarksdale, Mississippi
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2015· 1 entry
The Tennessee Williams Theatre Company of New Orleans was founded by Co-Artistic Directors Nick Shackleford and Augustin J Correro
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2014· 1 entry
Williams was one of the inaugural honorees in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields
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2010· 1 entry
For use by the City of Columbus as the Tennessee Williams Welcome Center
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2006· 1 entry
In Provincetown by the Shakespeare on the Cape production company
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1996· 1 entry
After many years in a mental institution in New York state; the university subsequently received about $7 million, which supports a creative writing program
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1985· 1 entry
French author-composer Michel Berger wrote a song dedicated to Tennessee Williams, "Quelque chose de Tennessee" (Something of Tennessee), for Johnny Hallyday
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1983· 6 entries
To state that Williams had been using the plastic cap found in his mouth to ingest barbiturates and had actually died from a toxic level of secobarbital
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Williams was found dead at age 71 in his suite at the Hotel Elysée in New York City
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Died 1983-02-25.
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“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.”
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“Há um tempo para partir, mesmo quando não há um lugar certo para ir.”
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“In memory everything seems to happen to music.”
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1982· 1 entry
Williams' last play, A House Not Meant to Stand, was produced in Chicago
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1980· 1 entry
Won Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by Jimmy Carter (1980).
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1979· 4 entries
Awarded Kennedy Center Honors (1979).
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Four years before his death, Williams was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame
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When the two men broke up in 1979, Williams called Carroll a "twerp", but they remained friends until Williams died four years later.
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Williams called Carroll a "twerp", but they remained friends until Williams died four years later
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1977· 1 entry
“I am widely regarded as the ghost of a writer,”
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1976· 1 entry
Williams served as the president of the jury for the 29th Cannes Film Festival
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1974· 1 entry
Awarded St. Louis Literary Award (1974).
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1963· 1 entry
Williams returned to him and cared for him until his death on September 20, 1963.
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1955· 2 entries
Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).
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And Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was at first considered the weakest of the five shortlisted nominees, Joseph Pulitzer Jr
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1951· 2 entries
Awarded Tony Award for Best Play for The Rose Tattoo (1951).
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“The Resemblance Between a Violin Case and a Coffin”
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1948· 3 entries
Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire (1948).
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Williams spent the spring and summer of 1948 in Rome in the company of a young man named "Rafaello" in Williams's Memoirs.
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“Only some radical change can divert the downward course of my spirit, some startling new place or people to arrest the drift, the drag.”
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1947· 2 entries
The huge success of Williams' next play, A Streetcar Named Desire, cemented his reputation as a great playwright
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They lived and traveled together until late 1947, when Williams ended the relationship.
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1943· 1 entry
As her behavior became increasingly disturbing, she was subjected to a lobotomy, requiring her to be institutionalized for the rest of her life
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1939· 2 entries
Using some of the Rockefeller funds, Williams moved to New Orleans to write for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a federally funded program of the New Deal era
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With the help of his agent Audrey Wood, Williams was awarded a $1,000 grant (equivalent to $23,100 in 2025) from the Rockefeller Foundation in recognition of his play Battle of Angels
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1936· 1 entry
Williams enrolled at Washington University in St
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1930· 1 entry
But his work did not gain much traction until 1944 with the success of The Glass Menagerie
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1928· 1 entry
Williams first visited Europe with his maternal grandfather Dakin
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1924· 1 entry
And later in life many of his poems would appear in notable magazines (including Playboy, Esquire, and the New Yorker)
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1911· 1 entry
Born 1911-03-26.
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