Tennessee WilliamsFilmography

Beautiful Darling

Actors: Candy Darling

Synopsis: Born in a Long Island suburb in 1944, James Slattery immediately felt drawn to the feminine side of life - to such a degree that he established himself as one of the most iconic of all female impersonators, Candy Darling. As given life by Slattery, this young, sexy and alluring blonde actress Read More

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Helen Mirren, Olivier Martinez, Anne Bancroft, Brian Dennehy, Roger Allam

Synopsis: Tennessee Williams' 1958 novella The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone was first filmed in 1961, with Vivien Leigh as the middle-aged title character and Warren Beatty as the callow gigolo with whom she falls in love. Since the "shocking" aspects of a May-December romance in which the woman is December Read More

A Streetcar Named Desire

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Renée Fleming, Rodney Gilfry, Elizabeth Futral, Anthony Dean Griffey

Synopsis: For his first opera, noted composer Andre Previn collaborated with librettist Phillip Littell for this adaptation of Tennessee Williams Pulitzer Prize-winning drama about Blanche DuBois, an emotionally fragile woman who is forced to confront the real world by her brutal and vulgar brother-in-law Read More

Orpheus Descending

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Vanessa Redgrave, Kevin Anderson

Synopsis: This made-for-cable adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play documents the romance between a lonely Southern belle (Vanessa Redgrave) and a young drifter (Kevin Anderson). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

Sweet Bird of Youth

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Cheryl Paris, Elizabeth Taylor, Mark Harmon

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1962 with Geraldine Page and Paul Newman in the leads, Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth was restaged for television in 1989 by Nicolas Roeg. Elizabeth Taylor stars as Alexandre Del Lago, a fading, alcoholic, drug-dependent movie star. Mark Harmon co-stars as Chance Read More

The Glass Menagerie

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Joanne Woodward, John Malkovich, Karen Allen, James Naughton

Synopsis: Paul Newman directed this moving adaptation of Tennessee Williams' classic play The Glass Menagerie. Joanne Woodward stars as aging Southern belle Amanda Wingfield, whose domineering parenting has driven her shy, timid daughter Laura (Karen Allen) inward and has made her adventure-hungry son Tom Read More

Noir et Blanc

Crew: Short Story Author

Actors: Francis Frappat, Jacques Martial, Josephine Fresson, Marc Berman, Benoit Regent

Synopsis: A white accountant finds himself irresistibly drawn into a sadomasochistic relationship with his black masseur in this distinguished film debut from French filmmaker Claire Devers. The story contains little dialog and is filmed in black and white. The accountant is a quiet married man who has been Read More

A Streetcar Named Desire

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Ann-Margret, Treat Williams, Beverly D'Angelo

Synopsis: Ann Margret looks too healthy to portray Blanche DuBois, the physically and mentally fragile Southern-belle protagonist of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, but we forget this discrepancy five minutes into her marvelous performance. This TV-movie version of Streetcar costars Treat Williams Read More

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Crew: Play Author

Actors: David Dukes, Penny Fuller, Jessica Lange, Tommy Lee Jones, Rip Torn, Kim Stanley

Synopsis: Coproduced by Showtime and PBS, the 1984 TV version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is based on Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Price winning play, previously filmed in 1958 and 1979. Jessica Lange stars as Maggie "the Cat", the frustrated, overheated wife of alcoholic former football jock Brick (Tommy Lee Jones Read More

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Laurence Olivier, Maureen Stapleton

Synopsis: This TV adaptation of Tennessee Williams' prize-winning play stars Robert Wagner as Brick, a college sports champion who hasn't made it in the real world, and Natalie Wood as Brick's wife Maggie, the sexually frustrated "cat" of the title. Brick and Maggie are staying at the home of Brick's Read More

The Migrants

Crew: Screen Story

Actors: Cloris Leachman

Synopsis: This made-for-TV drama focuses on the plight of a family of migratory farm workers. The film was Emmy-nominated as "Outstanding Drama" of the 1974 season. Nominations also went to director Tom Gries, actress Cloris Leachman, cinematographer Dick Kratina and composer Billy Goldenberg. ~ Brian Read More

The Glass Menagerie

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Katharine Hepburn, Joanna Miles, Sam Waterston

Synopsis: Previously filmed in 1950, Tennessee Williams' 1944 Broadway hit The Glass Menagerie was remade for television in 1973. Katharine Hepburn is top-billed as Amanda Wingfield, a faded southern belle who lives on her memories in a Depression-era St. Louis tenement. Sam Waterston narrates the story as Read More

Boom!

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Noël Coward, Joanna Shimkus, Michael Dunn

Synopsis: Boom is taken from the Tennessee Williams play The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore. Flora Goforth (Elizabeth Taylor) is a foul-mouthed, booze-swilling, pill-popping, middle-aged woman near death. She spends her time swearing at the servants and looks forward to the end of it all, until poet Read More

This Property Is Condemned

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Natalie Wood, Robert Redford, Charles Bronson, Kate Reid, Mary Badham

Synopsis: Sydney Pollack's tawdry potboiler, adapted from a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, was rife with production problems, culminating in Williams' failed attempt to have his name removed from the credits. The story is set by a framing device as thirteen-year-old Willie Starr (Mary Badham) sits on Read More

The Glass Menagerie

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Shirley Booth, Pat Hingle, Hal Holbrook, Barbara Loden

The Night of the Iguana

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, Sue Lyon, James Ward

Synopsis: Filmed on location in Mexico by John Huston, Night of the Iguana stars Richard Burton as Rev. Shannon, an alcoholic defrocked minister, who scratches out a living as a south-of-the-border tour guide. His latest customers are several American schoolteachers, and he guides their bus to a rundown Read More

Period of Adjustment

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Anthony Franciosa, Jane Fonda, Jim Hutton, Lois Nettleton, John McGiver

Synopsis: This was the first feature-length film directed by the very successful George Roy Hill. Based on a Tennessee Williams' novel, this standard comedy-drama focuses on two married couples who are both having a hard time of it, at least for now. The first couple, Isabel and George Haverstick (Jane Fonda Read More

Sweet Bird of Youth

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Paul Newman, Geraldine Page, Shirley Knight, Ed Begley, Sr., Rip Torn

Synopsis: Paul Newman recreates his Broadway role in the 1962 film version of Tennessee Williams' Sweet Bird of Youth. Newman plays handsome hustler Chance Wayne, who romances fading film star Alexandra Del Lago (Geraldine Page) in hopes of winning a movie contract for himself. The mercenary Wayne and the Read More

Summer and Smoke

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Laurence Harvey, Geraldine Page, John McIntire, Una Merkel, Rita Moreno, Malcolm Atterbury

Synopsis: Tennessee Williams' Broadway play Summer and Smoke (expanded from his one-act piece Eccentricities of a Nightingale) was brought to the screen by adaptors James Poe and Meade Roberts and director Peter Glenville. Geraldine Page repeats her stage role as minister's daughter Alma Winemiller, who Read More

The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Coral Browne, Jill St. John, Lotte Lenya

Synopsis: Vivien Leigh plays Karen Stone, a middle-aged actress whose career is in a tailspin. To assuage her hurt feelings, Karen goes on a vacation to Rome with her husband, who dies en route. Her best friend (Coral Browne) compassionately arranges for a young Italian escort (read: gigolo) to keep Karen Read More

The Fugitive Kind

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton, Victor Jory

Synopsis: Fugitive Kind began life as Battle of Angels, a never-produced 1939 play by a young Tennessee Williams. Nearly 20 years later, Williams refined this rough-hewn theatrical effort into Orpheus Descending, which enjoyed a respectable Broadway run. The renamed film version stars Marlon Brando as Read More

Suddenly, Last Summer

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery Clift, Albert Dekker, Mercedes McCambridge

Synopsis: In this lush, lurid adaptation of the 1957 Tennessee Williams one-act, Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn play a seemingly insane, young New Orleans debutante and the wealthy aunt who wants to lobotomize her. Dr. John Cukrowicz (Montgomery Clift) is a gifted Chicago brain surgeon stymied by Read More

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Paul Newman, Elizabeth Taylor, Burl Ives, Jack Carson, Judith Anderson, Madeleine Sherwood

Synopsis: This dynamic and commanding adaptation of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play focuses on a troubled Southern family and the discord over their dying father's millions. Wealthy plantation owner Big Daddy Pollitt (Burl Ives), celebrating his 65th birthday, is visited by his sons, Brick (Paul Newman Read More

Baby Doll

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Karl Malden, Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Mildred Dunnock, Lonny Chapman

Synopsis: Tennessee Williams' 27 Wagons Full of Cotton was the basis for this steamy sex seriocomedy. Karl Malden stars as the doltish owner of a Southern cotton gin. He is married to luscious teenager Carroll Baker, who steadfastly refuses to sleep with her husband until she reaches the age of 20. Her Read More

The Rose Tattoo

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Anna Magnani, Burt Lancaster, Marisa Pavan, Ben Cooper, Jo Van Fleet, Virginia Grey

Synopsis: Scripted by famed playwright Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo stars Anna Magnani as Serafina Delle Rose, a Sicilian woman who now lives in the American South. As the film opens, she is still mourning the death of her beloved husband, constantly telling herself stories of their time together. Read More

Senso

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Alida Valli, Farley Granger, Massimo Girotti, Heinz Moog, Rina Morelli

Synopsis: Italian director Luchino Visconti dishes up his usual blend of elegance and decadence in Senso. The international cast includes French film star Alida Valli as a Italian countess married to a Venetian nobleman, and English leading man Farley Granger as an Austrian military officer. The two are Read More

A Streetcar Named Desire

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, Rudy Bond

Synopsis: In the classic play by Tennessee Williams, brought to the screen by Elia Kazan, faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to visit her pregnant sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), in a seedy section of New Orleans. Stella's boorish husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), not only Read More

The Glass Menagerie

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: Jane Wyman, Kirk Douglas, Gertrude Lawrence, Arthur Kennedy, Ralph Sanford

Synopsis: Adapted from the play by Tennessee Williams, Glass Menagerie centers around four unhappy people living in a rundown section of St. Louis. Tom, the story's narrator (Arthur Kennedy) is a poetic idealist trapped in a dead-end job, drowning his sorrows in booze. Tom lives with his mother Amanda (Gertrude Lawrence Read More