The Actors of Tennessee Williams
Earlier this week, we shared an article on the legacy of Tennessee Williams. Now, let’s turn our attention to the actors. Many performers’ careers have been influenced by Williams’ work, from Marlon Brando to Eli Wallach to Vanessa Redgrave. Read below to learn about their roles, their reviews and some fun facts that will prep you for any bar trivia contest.
Actor: Marlon Brando
Roles: Stanley Kowalski in the original 1947 production of A Streetcar Named Desire, as well as the famous film.
Review Snippet: In Brooks Atkinson’s New York Times review, he notes that the acting across the board is “very high quality” and “with color and style;” Brando is only mentioned very briefly. Who could have guessed from such words that it was to launch the career of one of Hollywood’s greatest stars.
Fun Fact: Brando was a mere 23-years-old when he got this iconic part. Prior to Streetcar, Brando acted in two other Sam French titles on Broadway: Candida and Antigone (Anouilh).
Quote: “A man without any sensitivity, without any kind of morality except his own mewling, whimpering insistence on his own way … one of those guys who work hard and have lots of flesh with nothing supple about them. They never open their fists, really. They grip a cup like an animal would wrap a paw around it. They’re so muscle-bound they can hardly talk.” — Marlon Brando on Stanley Kowalski (check out that link for a great recollection on Streetcar’s first production).
Above Photo: With Jessica Tandy in the original 1947 production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Actor: Jessica Tandy
Roles: Blanche Du Bois in the original 1947 Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Marguerite Gautier in the 1970 Broadway revival of Camino Real, Amanda Wingfield in the 1983 Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie.
Review Snippet: “And Jessica Tandy gives a superb performance as a rueful heroine whose misery Mr. Williams is tenderly recording. This must be one of the most perfect marriages of acting and playwriting. For the acting and playwriting are perfectly blended in a limpid performance, and it is impossible to tell where Miss Tandy begins to give form and warmth to the mood Mr. Williams has created.” — Brooks Atkinson on her performance in Streetcar (New York Times).
Fun Fact: Tandy got the part of Blanche after doing an LA stage production of Williams’ one-act play, Portrait of a Madonna, directed by her husband, Hume Cronyn. As Blanche, Tandy won her first Tony Award, which she shared with two other actresses (Judith Anderson and Katharine Cornell) at only the second year of the Award ceremony existence. She would not win her first Oscar until 1989, when she played the titular character in Driving Miss Daisy.
Quote: “The great and liberating event in my life was in having my desires affirmed–in having someone I loved and admired and trusted tell me that I wasn’t foolish in hoping for, dreaming of, working toward my goals. And that event occurred when I met Hume [her husband], who swept away my fears–emotional, financial, physical–and allowed me to focus on being someone of merit. It happened again with Tennessee, who believed in me, trusted me with his child, which was his play. To be the recipient of love, of generosity, is the great, liberating event, and people can complain of the betrayals and the inconveniences, but to be bonded with, trusted by, held up by someone who wants you to do well is something I don’t even think words can honor. Give what you have, take what is given. It was hard for me to do this, but I did it. And I sit here today on top of some glorious memories.” — Jessica Tandy in an interview with James Grissom (1991).
Above Photo: As Blanche in the original 1947 production of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre.
Actor: Maureen Stapleton
Roles: Serafina Delle Rose in the original 1951 Broadway production and 1966 revival of The Rose Tattoo, Lady Torrance in the original 1957 Broadway production of Orpheus Descending, Amanda Wingfield in the 1965 and 1975 revival productions of The Glass Menagerie.
Review Snippet: “Maureen Stapleton gives a remarkable performance that has all the strength, the honesty and the power of her best work.” — Brooks Atkinson on her performance in Orpheus Descending (New York Times).
Fun Fact: Though she doesn’t have a Grammy Award, she has something close to an EGOT: she has an Emmy, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, and not one but two Tonys!
Quote: “I lost patience with him all the time. Constantly! People you love can drive you crazy. In fact, it may be a definition of love that they can, that they do, that you let them. And then you forgive. You know, I’m not a big believer in hard, fast rules most of the time, but there are hard, fast rules for friendship, and Tennessee and I followed those all the way to the end: You show up; you listen; you do whatever you can; you do not judge, but you heal, you comfort; you laugh and cry when it’s time. And then you shove the experience into some closet or inventory of friendship, but you give the appearance of forgetting about it. And you go on. And you repeat the process whenever you have to. Life pisses on you all the time from the time they slap you on the ass at birth. You do not piss on friendship. That’s the real and true hard, fast rule.”–Maureen Stapleton on Tennessee Williams in an interview with James Grissom.
Above Photo: With Don Murray in The Rose Tattoo.
Actor: Eli Wallach
Roles: Alvaro Mangiacavallo in the original 1951 production of The Rose Tattoo, Kilroy in the original 1953 Broadway production of Camino Real.
Review Snippet: “Eli Wallach’s good-humored, colloquial portrait of Kilroy, the American boy, is excellent.” Brooks Atkinson on Eli Wallach in Camino Real (New York Times).
Fun Fact: While waiting to hear if Camino Real (directed by Elia Kazan) had enough funding to be produced, Wallach auditioned for and was offered a part in the film From Here to Eternity, beating out Frank Sinatra for the role. But Wallach turned it down so he could do the Williams’ play. He recalled of that experience: “It was a remarkable piece of writing by the leading playwright in America and it was going to be directed by the country’s best. There really wasn’t much of a choice for me…Whenever Sinatra saw me, he’d say, ‘Hello, you crazy actor!’”
Quote: “What do I need a movie for? The stage is on a higher level in every way, and a more satisfying medium. Movies, by comparison, are like calendar art next to great paintings. You can’t really do very much in movies or in television, but the stage is such an anarchistic medium.” — Eli Wallach.
Above Photo: With Maureen Stapleton in the original 1951 Broadway production of The Rose Tattoo at the Martin Beck Theatre.
Actor: Paul Newman
Roles: Chance Wayne in the original 1959 Broadway production of Sweet Bird of Youth and in the 1962 film version, Brick in the 1958 film version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, director of the 1987 film version of The Glass Menagerie based on the production he directed at Williamstown Theatre Festival and the Long Wharf Theatre.
Review Snippet: “And Paul Newman’s young man is the perfect companion piece [to Geraldine Page as Princess Kosmonopolis]. Although he has a braggart, calculating exterior, he is as immature as an adolescent: brassy outside, terrified and remorseful when he stops struggling.” — Brooks Atkinson on Paul Newman in Sweet Bird of Youth on Broadway (New York Times).
Fun Fact: Paul Newman also played the Gentleman Caller in The Glass Menagerie in a Wisconsin summer stock production right after college. His last performance on Broadway was as the Stage Manager in Sam French’s popular title, Our Town.
Quote: “I dream of going back — even at my age — and playing that part again. I thought I understood Brick back then: I thought I was a very mature man of thirty-three (the age at which Jesus died, Tennessee kept telling me), and we spoke of Gethsemane and dishonesty and how it distorts and deforms a person. I thought I understood all of that, and I did, in my way, at that time. But the part is so much bigger and deeper than we realize — than I realized — and so much of it was not investigated. So I want to go back. And wanting to go back makes me one of Tennessee’s children, I guess. It’s what he always called me.” — Paul Newman on playing Brick in the film of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Above Photo: With Geraldine Page in the original 1959 production of Sweet Bird of Youth at the Martin Beck Theatre.
Actor: Christopher Walken
Role: Jack Hunter in the 1966 Broadway production of The Rose Tattoo, Chance Wayne in the 1975 Broadway production of Sweet Bird of Youth, Stanley Kowalski in the 1986 Williamstown Theatre Festival production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Review Snippet: “Here, Christopher Walken has also a kind of beauty to him, but he invests it with a decadence that recalls Baudelaire and other doomed souls.” — Clive Barnes (New York Times).
Fun Fact: His fame may come from film, but his roots are all theatre. Christopher Walken has starred in several Broadway productions of Samuel French titles, including J.B., The Lion in Winter, Hurlyburly and James Joyce’s The Dead.
Quote: “I did Sweet Bird of Youth a long time ago and Tennessee Williams was around a lot. I got to know him well enough to say, ‘You know this scene here toward the end I don’t really understand it or what I’m trying to say.’ And he said, ‘Honey, just change it. Say whatever you want, just make sense of it.’ Of course, I didn’t change anything. But he did say that to me.” — Christopher Walken, Backstage Interview.
Above Photo: In the 1986 Williamstown Theatre Festival production of A Streetcar Named Desire with Blythe Danner as Blanche.
Actor: Vanessa Redgrave
Roles: Lady Torrance in the 1989 West End Revival of Orpheus Descending and the subsequent Broadway transfer, as well as the made-for-TV film adaptation of that production.
Review Snippet: “If there existed something like a dream in which a recipe was concocted to create an ideal actress, the dream would end with an entrance by Vanessa Redgrave.” — Tennessee Williams in “Vanessa: The Life of Vanessa Redgrave” by Dan Callahan.
Fun Fact: Vanessa Redgrave is the person who “saved” Williams’ early play Not About Nightingales. She saw a reference to the play in a Williams biography and asked the estate to have the script released to the public. When discovered, the National Theatre in London produced the play and Redgrave offered to play the part of a middle-aged lady that appears in one brief scene, but the director said it was too small a part for her. Because of Vanessa Redgrave, you can purchase a copy of the script and license the show from Samuel French!
Quote: “The story tells, and the particular characters show, an extraordinary understanding of the situation of dispossessed people. The Sicilian dispossessed can’t find jobs or keep their families together and have to immigrate to America to find a life. They can’t find the life here and become trapped. This situation comes together with the situation of the Indian people and the black American people and the situation of the poor white sharecroppers, which is a reflection of the vestiges of a feudal society still there in the South at the time he wrote it. We are talking real history, and you have to know that real history to appreciate it when you are studying what he wrote.” — Vanessa Redgrave on Orpheus Descending in “Vanessa: The Life of Vanessa Redgrave” by Dan Callahan.
Above Photo: With Jean-Marc Barr in the 1989 West End production of Orpheus Descending.
Actor: Amanda Plummer
Roles: Laura Wingfield in the 1983 Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie, Frances Black in the 1987 Off-Broadway production of The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore, Miss Alma in the 2006 Hartford Stage production of Summer and Smoke, Clare in the 2013 Off-Broadway production of Two-Character Play at New World Stages
Review Snippet: “In a sensational return to the New York stage, Ms. Plummer is all quicksilver shifts of theatrical style and emotional substance in this late, demented work from one of America’s few genuinely great dramatists.” Ben Brantley of her performance in Two-Character Play (New York Times).
Fun Fact: A role that Plummer really made her mark in was the original Agnes in the popular Samuel French title, Agnes of God by John Pielmeier.
Quote: “What I got from Tennessee himself, and from a few other people that were really close to him, is that no one could laugh at absurdity, at tragedy, like he could. And it’s in his writing — the lightness, that light touch, humor in the darkest places.” — Amanda Plummer in a New York Times interview.
Above Photo: With Two-Character Play co-star Brad Dourif in the 2013 New York production at New World Stages.
Actors: James Earl Jones & Phylicia Rashad
Roles: Big Daddy & Big Mama in the 2008 Broadway and 2009 West End productions of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Review Snippet: In his review, Brantley spoke of the two that “it was as if these parts were their birthrights.”
Fun Fact: Jones has starred in many Samuel French titles, including, of course, The Great White Hope, for which he won his first Tony Award; he will star in The Gin Game on Broadway this coming fall. Rashad also won a Tony for her performance in a Samuel French play: A Raisin in the Sun. Interestingly enough, one of her earliest roles was in the ensemble of the original Broadway production of The Wiz.
Quote: “I don’t think we exist as actors just to make people feel good. Tennessee Williams believed in that: he wanted to get under the skin.” — James Earl Jones
“You have to understand some things about southern women in the 1950s, and I know about this, even though we’ve placed the play in the 1980s. Big Mama is not an educated woman; she’s not a developed woman. She could have been but her main goal in life is to be important to her husband, without whom she doesn’t have a life. So when the husband is the central figure, child bearing and all that stuff becomes very, very important, along with keeping the most beautiful house, keeping yourself exciting, working it out in bed, serving good meals, making sure this birthday party was the best. She’s not an educated woman, but Big Mama is not stupid.” — Phylicia Rashad on Big Mama
Above Photo: The 2009 West End production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre.
Actor: Cherry Jones
Roles: Hannah Jelkes in the 1996 Broadway production of The Night of the Iguana, Amanda Wingfield in the 2013 A.R.T. production and subsequent 2013 Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie.
Review Snippet: Brantley called her portrayal of Amanda “a magnificently human performance, anchoring Amanda without the customary grotesque eccentricities. For all her florid talk of a glorious, genteel Southern youth, this Amanda is rooted in the shabby, debt-plagued present and determined to take command of it, even though the tools she uses are woefully anachronistic.”
Fun Fact: Jones noted that she auditioned for the part of Laura several times but never got it. While The Glass Menagerie has had six revivals on Broadway, none had received any Tony Award nominations except for this production. (The original was produced before Tony Awards existed.) Cherry Jones broke this streak by being the first Amanda Wingfield to be nominated for Best Leading Actress.
Quote: “I never felt I fit into his plays. There was always so much stuff. You know, Tennessee Williams is the one who said refrigerators and ice cubes on stage are killing the American theater. But once I got off my high horse and did the reading, I fell in love with Amanda. I know this kind of woman from my childhood in the South. She was a survivor who had a certain grace and style, but an absolute determination to protect her daughter.” — Cherry Jones
Above Photo: In The Glass Menagerie with co-star Zachary Quinto in the 2013 Broadway revival at the Booth Theatre.
