Anderson, Robert [Woodruff] (b. 1917), playwright. Born in New York and educated at Harvard, he won the National Theatre Conference's prize for his 1944 play Come Marching Home. His first Broadway success was Tea and Sympathy (1953), one of the first American plays to approach the topic of homophobia. Anderson's other long run was his bill of one‐acters, You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running (1967). His other works include All Summer Long (1954), Silent Night, Lonely Night (1959), The Days Between (1965 and 1979), I Never Sang for My Father (1968), and Solitaire/Double Solitaire (1970). On the strength of Tea and Sympathy he was made a member of the Playwrights' Company, but his early promise was never realized. Anderson also wrote many scripts for radio and screenplays.
Robert Woodruff Anderson
| American Theater Guide: Robert [Woodruff] Anderson |
| Writer: Robert Anderson |
- Born: Apr 28, 1917 in New York, New York
- Died: Feb 09, 2009
- Occupation: Writer
- Active: '50s-'70s
- Major Genres: Drama, Romance
- Career Highlights: I Never Sang for My Father, The Sand Pebbles, The Nun's Story
- First Major Screen Credit: Tea and Sympathy (1956)
Biography
During his senior year at Harvard, Robert Anderson wrote the music and libretto for the satirical campus revue Hour Town. While serving the U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II, he received a War Department prize for "best play written by a serviceman," Come Marching Home, which received a brief New York showing at the end of the war. Winning a four-year Rockefeller fellowship in 1946, he studied under John Gassner, then taught playwriting at the American Theatre Wing. In 1953, Anderson scored his first Broadway hit with Tea and Sympathy. Written as a veiled attack against McCarthyism, the play gained latter-day respect as the first major American theatrical piece to treat homosexuality with tolerance and understanding. Two years into the show's run, Anderson set up a playwriting unit at the Actor's Studio. He made his screenwriting bow in 1956 with the film version of Tea and Sympathy (1957), then adapted James Michener's Until They Sail and Kathryn Hulme's The Nun's Story for the screen. His subsequent theatrical work included Silent Night, Lonely Night, I Know You Can't Hear Me When the Water's Running, and I Never Sang for My Father; the latter effort earned Anderson an Oscar nomination and a Writers' Guild Award when he adapted it for the screen in 1970. His last screenwriting project was the 1991 TV movie Absolute Strangers, based upon an actual legal contretemps involving a comatose pregnant woman. Anderson was married to actress Teresa Wright from 1959 through 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide| Filmography: Robert Anderson |
| Wikipedia: Robert Woodruff Anderson |
| Robert Woodruff Anderson | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 28, 1917 New York City, New York |
| Died | February 9, 2009 (aged 91) New York, New York |
| Spouse(s) | Phyllis Stohl (1940-1956) Teresa Wright (1959-1978) |
Robert Anderson (born Robert Woodruff Anderson, 28 April 1917, New York City – 9 February 2009) was an American playwright, screenwriter, and theater producer.
He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, which he later said he found a lonely experience. While there he fell in love with an older woman, an event which later became the basis of the plot of Tea and Sympathy. Anderson also attended Harvard University, where he took an undergraduate as well as a master's degree.[1]
He is best remembered as the author of Tea and Sympathy. The play made its Broadway debut in 1953 and was made into an MGM film in 1956; both starred Deborah Kerr and John Kerr.
You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, a collection of four one-act comedies, opened in New York in 1967 and ran for more than 700 performances. His other successful Broadway plays were Silent Night, Lonely Night (1959) and I Never Sang for My Father (1968).[2]
He also wrote the screenplays for Until They Sail (1957), The Nun's Story (1959), and The Sand Pebbles (1966). He was Oscar-nominated for the The Nun's Story as well as his 1970 screen adaptation of I Never Sang for My Father. He also authored many television scripts, including the TV play The Last Act Is a Solo (1991), and the novels After (1973) and Getting Up and Going Home (1978).
Anderson was married to Phyllis Stohl from 1940 until her death in 1956 and to actress Teresa Wright from 1959 until their divorce in 1978. Anderson died of pneumonia on February 9, 2009 at his home in Manhattan. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for seven years prior to his death. [3]
Selected Plays
- Tea and Sympathy (1953)
- All Summer Long (1955)
- Silent Night, Lonely Night (1959)
- You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running (1967)
- I Never Sang for My Father (1968)
- Solitaire/Double Solitaire (1970)
- Absolute Strangers (1991)
- The Last Act Is a Solo (1991)
References
External Links
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Copyrights:
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 | American Theater Guide. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Copyright © 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Writer. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Robert Woodruff Anderson". Read more |
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