Thornton Wilder Filmography

Born:: April 17, 1897 in Madison, WI
Occupation:: Screenwriter, Book Author, Play Author
Biography:: Thornton Wilder is best remembered for his play Our Town, which has been filmed once and presented numerous times on television, as well as being a staple of high school, college, semiprofessional, and regional theater companies' repertories throughout the many decades since its inception in 1938....Read More

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The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Robert De Niro, F. Murray Abraham, Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne

Synopsis: Thornton Wilder's award-winning novel is given a lavish screen adaptation in this historical drama from writer and director Mary McGuckian. In Peru in 1714, a rickety bridge collapsed as five people were attempting to cross, forcing them to plunge to their deaths. Brother Fray Juniper (Gabriel Byrne Read More

6/10/05
Our Town

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Paul Newman, Maggie Lacey, Ben Fox, Frank Converse, Jayne Atkinson

Synopsis: Originally assembled by actress Joanne Woodward at Connecticut's Westport County Playhouse (where she served as artistic director), this highly praised 2002 revival of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 play Our Town enjoyed a brief Broadway stay that same year, and it was during its Read More

2003
Our Town

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Spalding Gray

1989
Mr. North

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Anthony Edwards, Robert Mitchum, Lauren Bacall, Harry Dean Stanton, Anjelica Huston

Synopsis: A young man freshly graduated from Yale (Anthony Edwards) moves to Rhode Island and finds himself with a strange power: the ability to create mild electric shocks through his hands. He begins to make friends around the community, and tries to help those around him by healing several minor Read More

7/22/88
The Skin of Our Teeth

Crew: Play Author

Synopsis: The cast of the Old Globe Theater's acclaimed early-'80s revival of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic reunited to re-create their roles for this made-for-TV production, taped for PBS's anthology series American Playhouse. The Skin of Our Teeth follows the often funny and Read More

1983
Our Town

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox, Sada Thompson, John Houseman, Hal Holbrook, Glynnis O'Connor, Robby Benson, Barbara Bel Geddes

Synopsis: This videotaped version of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning play Our Town stars Hal Holbrook as the Stage Manager. Acting as narrator and assuming several different interlocutory roles throughout the production, Holbrook shows us life in Grovers Corners, New Hampshire, in the first few years of Read More

1977
DuPont Show of the Month: The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Judith Anderson, Hume Cronyn, Viveca Lindfors, Eva Le Gallienne, Rita Gam

Synopsis: Previously filmed twice in Hollywood, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey was brought to television in this lavish, live, star-studded DuPont Show of the Month adaptation. The story essentially begins at the end -- July 20, 1714 -- when the famous San Luis Rey Read More

1958
The Matchmaker

Crew: Play Author

Actors: Shirley Booth, Anthony Perkins, Shirley MacLaine, Paul Ford, Robert Morse

Synopsis: Thornton Wilder's 1938 stage play The Merchant of Yonkers was based on an old British stage farce by John Oxenford (which in turn served as the basis of an Austrian farce by Johann Nestroy). Merchant of Yonkers was a bomb, but Wilder was quite fond of the piece, so he revised it as the Read More

1958
Producer's Showcase: The Skin of Our Teeth

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Synopsis: Irregularly scheduled on NBC from 1954 through 1957, Producers' Showcase was a series of lavish, full-color 90 minute specials, bringing the best of Broadway to the 21 inch screen. On September 11, 1955, the series expanded to two hours to offer an elaborate "life from Hollywood" staging of Read More

1955
The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Lynn Bari, Akim Tamiroff, Francis Lederer, Alla Nazimova, Louis Calhern

Synopsis: First filmed in 1928, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winning novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey is given a ponderous treatment in this 1944 remake. Like the novel, the film begins at the end, with the collapse of a rope bridge in 18th century Peru. The story then flashes back to the lives of the five Read More

1944
Shadow of a Doubt

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Joseph Cotten, Teresa Wright, MacDonald Carey, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge

Synopsis: Teresa Wright plays Charlie, a small-town high-schooler who enjoys a symbiotic relationship with her favorite uncle, also named Charlie (Joseph Cotten). When young Charlie "wills" that old Charlie pay a visit to her family, her wish comes true. Uncle Charlie is his usual charming self, but he Read More

1943
Our Town

Crew: Play Author, Screenwriter

Actors: William Holden, Martha Scott, Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell

Synopsis: Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town is given the Hollywood treatment in this adaptation directed by Sam Wood featuring an evocative score by Aaron Copland and outstanding production design by William Cameron Menzies. Frank Craven is Mr. Morgan, the narrator and our guide through Read More

1940
We Live Again

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Anna Sten, Fredric March, Jane Baxter, C. Aubrey Smith, Sam Jaffe, Ethel Griffies

Synopsis: We Live Again was based on Tolstoy's Resurrection; the title was changed upon producer Sam Goldwyn's theory that it meant the same thing as Resurrection and was easier to understand. The film was meant as an introductory showcase for Goldwyn's latest discovery, Russian actress Anna Sten. The Read More

1934
The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Crew: Book Author

Actors: Ernest Torrence, Raquel Torres, Henry B. Walthall

Synopsis: The first of two film versions of Thornton Wilder's novel, The Bridge of San Luis Rey begins at the end. The titular bridge, which stands in 18th-century Peru, collapses, killing five people. The natives believe that the bridge's destruction was the result of Divine intervention. Using this as a Read More

1929