Robert Woodruff Anderson was an American playwright, screenwriter, and theater producer.
He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, which he later said he found a lonely experience. While there he fell in love with an older woman, an event which later became the basis of the plot of Tea and Sympathy. Anderson also attended Harvard University, where he took an undergraduate as well as a master's degree.
He may be best-remembered as the author of Tea and Sympathy. The play made its Broadway debut in 1953 and was made into an MGM film in 1956; both starred Deborah Kerr and John Kerr.
You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running, a collection of four one-act comedies, opened in New York in 1967 and ran for more than 700 performances. His other successful Broadway plays were Silent Night, Lonely Night and I Never Sang for My Father .
He also wrote the screenplays for Until They Sail , The Nun's Story , and The Sand Pebbles . He was Oscar-nominated for The Nun's Story as well as his 1970 screen adaptation of I Never Sang for My Father. He also authored many television scripts, including the TV play The Last Act Is a Solo , and the novels After and Getting Up and Going Home .
He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981.
Anderson was married to Phyllis Stohl from 1940 until her death in 1956 and to actress Teresa Wright from 1959 until their divorce in 1978. Anderson died of pneumonia on February 9, 2009 at his home in Manhattan, aged 91. He had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for seven years prior to his death.
“All you’re supposed to do is every once in a while give the boys a little tea and sympathy.”
"Tea and Sympathy" (1957) act 1
