Inge, William

▪ American playwright

in full  William Motter Inge 

born May 3, 1913, Independence, Kan., U.S.

died June 10, 1973, Hollywood Hills, Calif.

      American playwright best known for his plays Come Back, Little Sheba (1950; filmed 1952); Picnic (1953; filmed 1956), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize; and Bus Stop (1955; filmed 1956).

      Inge was educated at the University of Kansas at Lawrence and at the George Peabody College for Teachers in Nashville, Tenn. He taught school from 1937 to 1949, also serving as drama editor of the Star-Times in St. Louis, Mo., from 1943 to 1946. His first play, Farther Off from Heaven (1947), was produced in Dallas, Texas, at the recommendation of Tennessee Williams, to whom Inge had sent the script; 10 years later it was revised for Broadway as The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (filmed 1960).

      Inge was one of the first American dramatists to deal with the quality of life in the small towns of the Midwest, and he achieved notable success throughout the 1950s. His later plays—A Loss of Roses (1960; filmed as The Stripper, 1963), Natural Affection (1963), Where's Daddy? (1966), and The Last Pad (1970)—were less successful. Inge received an Academy Award for his original screenplay Splendor in the Grass (1961). His shorter works included Glory in the Flower (1958), To Bobolink, for Her Spirit (1962), The Boy in the Basement (1962), and Bus Riley's Back in Town (1962).

Additional Reading

Richard M. Leeson, William Inge: A Research and Production Sourcebook (1994); Ralph F. Voss, A Life of William Inge: The Strains of Triumph (1989).

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