Birthday profile

Wendy Wasserstein

Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright and author (died 2006)

Born
October 18, 1950
Died
January 30, 2006
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1950

About Wendy Wasserstein

Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles. Wendy was the youngest of five siblings, including brother Bruce Wasserstein, a well-known investment banker. Claims that Schleifer was a playwright are probably apocryphal, as contemporaries did not recall this and the assertion only appeared once Wasserstein had won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Wasserstein's first production of note was Uncommon Women and Others (her graduate thesis at Yale), a play which reflected her experiences as a student at, and an alumna of, Mount Holyoke College. In 1989, she won the Tony Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play The Heidi Chronicles.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Wendy Wasserstein timeline

  1. In 1989, she won the Tony Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play The Heidi Chronicles.
  2. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles.

The world when Wendy Wasserstein was born

Wendy Wasserstein was born in 1950. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1950

  • #1 song"Goodnight, Irene" – The Weavers
  • Top movieAll About Eve
  • Top TV showTexaco Star Theater
  • Best-selling bookThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentUSA beats England 1-0 in the FIFA World Cup
  • Top headlineKorean War begins as North Korea invades the South
  • Technology milestoneFirst credit card introduced (Diners Club)
  • Defining fadPoodle skirts
  • Notable inventionCredit card (Diners Club)
  • World population2.56 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonMinneapolis Lakers (NBA)
  • U.S. population151.3M

1950 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Wendy Wasserstein's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19502026
Gas$0.27$3.45/gal
Average home$8,450$435,000
Average income$5,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.46$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population151.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.