Born Thomas Williams in Mississippi in 1911 into a poor family, he was given the nickname 'Tennessee' by college classmates poking fun at his strong southern accent. Williams wrote flawed characters and exposed dark family secrets - sometimes too dark for Hollywood who often toned down his works for film. Being gay and suffering from depression and later alcoholism, Williams had his fair share of secrets to draw from. He won two Pulitzer Prizes in Drama - "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947) and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1954) and was quoted in Elia Kazan's autobiography as saying, "There are no 'good' or 'bad' people. Some are a little better or a little worse but all are activated more by misunderstanding than malice. A blindness to what is going on in each other's hearts... Nobody sees anybody truly but all through the flaws of their own egos." A hugely influential character on the American cultural stage, his film works are gathered below. "Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going." - Tennessee Williams
Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin repeat the roles that they took on Broadway in the first uncut film of the Tennesse Williams classic play. Read more
A remake of the much-loved Tennessee Williams classic about family strife in 1940s New Orleans. Strong, vibrant acting by Ann-Margret and Treat Willia... Read more
After what producer David Susskind called, "the longest wooing for a part in a lifetime of dealing with stars," four-time Oscar winner Katharine Hepbu... Read more
Hollywood royalty Taylor and Burton star in this outrageous tale of the richest woman in the world, kept company in her last days by an equally indulg... Read more
Elizabeth Taylor Box Set: 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' (1958) - Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize play thunders across the screen in a powerful film adapt... Read more
John Huston directs this gripping Tennessee Williams' adaptation chronicling a former preacher's (Richard Burton) dalliances with three women--a nymph... Read more
An expert adaptation of Tennesse Williams' critically acclaimed play. Geraldine Page excels as a former movie queen whose career has given way to acho... Read more
Vivien Leigh stars as a middle-aged actress whose husband dies on their way to an Italian vacation. Electing to remain in Rome, Leigh's trip takes an... Read more
Marlon Brando is Val Xavier, a guitar playing, snakeskin jacket wearing drifter who wanders into a small southern town after giving up a life of crime... Read more
The gripping drama of a fierce matriarch (Katharine Hepburn), her institutionalised niece (Elizabeth Taylor) and the neuro-surgeon (Montgomery Clift)... Read more