Tennessee Williams (born Thomas Lanier Williams, March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983) was an American playwright who received many of the top theatrical awards for his works of drama. He moved to New Orleans in 1939 and changed his name to "Tennessee", the state of his father's birth. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for A Streetcar Named Desire in 1948 and for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 1955.

In addition, The Glass Menagerie (1945) and The Night of the Iguana (1961) received New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards. His 1952 play The Rose Tattoo received the Tony Award for best play. Williams was born in Columbus, Mississippi, in the home of his maternal grandfather, the local Episcopal priest.

He was of Welsh descent. The house is now the Mississippi Welcome Center and tourist office for the city. Williams's middle name, Lanier, indicates his family's Virginia connections to the artistic family from England.

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