Portrait of William Inge

Birthday profile

William Inge

William Inge, American playwright and novelist (died 1973)

Born
May 3, 1913
Died
June 10, 1973
Zodiac sign
Taurus
Birth year
1913

About William Inge

William Motter Inge (; May 3, 1913 – June 10, 1973) was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. With his portraits of small-town life and settings rooted in the American heartland, Inge became known as the "Playwright of the Midwest". During the early 1950s, Inge had a string of memorable Broadway productions, including Picnic, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He was also nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play twice, for Bus Stop and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. He also won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay to the film Splendor in the Grass (1961). == Early years == Inge was born in Independence, Kansas, the fifth child of Maude Sarah Gibson-Inge and Luther Clay Inge. William attended Independence Community College and graduated from the University of Kansas in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech and Drama. At the University of Kansas he was a member of the Nu chapter of Sigma Nu. Offered a scholarship to work on a Master of Arts degree, Inge moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend the George Peabody College for Teachers, but later dropped out. Back in Kansas, he worked as a laborer on state highways and as a Wichita news announcer.

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

Career and life highlights

William Inge timeline

  1. With Tennessee Williams's encouragement, Inge wrote his first play, Farther Off from Heaven (1947), which was staged at Margo Jones' Theatre '47 in Dallas, Texas.
  2. It ran on Broadway for 190 performances in 1950, winning Tony Awards for Shirley Booth and Sidney Blackmer. (The 1952 film adaptation won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Shirley Booth.
  3. A film adaptation made in 1955 was directed by Joshua Logan and won two Academy Awards.
  4. He also won an Academy Award for writing the screenplay to the film Splendor in the Grass (1961).

The world when William Inge was born

William Inge was born in 1913. 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 1913

  • Best-selling book"The Inside of the Cup" – Winston Churchill

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJim Thorpe stripped of Olympic titles over amateurism rules
  • Top headline16th Amendment allows federal income tax
  • Technology milestoneFord assembly line begins — revolutionizes manufacturing
  • World population~1.73B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population96.0M

1913 versus 2026

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

Measure19132026
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population96.0M341 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.