RIP: Robert Anderson, 1918-2009
As per Associated Press.
Playwright Robert Anderson, author of such Broadway hits as "Tea and Sympathy" and "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running," has died at age 91.
His stepdaughter, Mary-Kelly Busch, said Anderson died Monday of pneumonia at his Manhattan home and had Alzheimer's disease for the last few years.
Anderson also wrote Hollywood screenplays, TV scripts and several novels, but it was his stage work that brought him the most fame.
He's best known for "Tea and Sympathy," a drama about the relationship between the wife of a headmaster at a New England prep school and a student suspected of being gay.
The play, which opened on Broadway in 1953, starred Deborah Kerr as the wife and John Kerr as the young man. Both actors repeated their roles in the 1956 film version, which featured a screenplay by Anderson and was directed by Vincent Minnelli.
Anderson's script contained an often quoted line, uttered by the wife to the student about their affair: "Years from now, when you talk of this — and you will — be kind."
His other big Broadway success was "You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running," a collection of four one-act comedies, mostly about marriage, that opened in New York in 1967 and ran for more than 700 performances. Featured in the cast were Martin Balsam, George Grizzard, Eileen Heckart and Melinda Dillon.
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