Photo: Stage Publishing Company, Inc., no photographer credited / Public domain (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Lillian Hellman commands my respect as much for her spine as for her sentences. A New Orleans-born playwright who conquered Broadway, she refused to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee, choosing the blacklist over betrayal at the height of the Red Scare. That moral clarity, costly and unglamorous, feels rarer than talent itself. Across plays, screenplays, and memoirs she wrote with a sharp, unsentimental authority that earned her a National Book Award. I am drawn to writers who treat conviction as inseparable from craft. Decades after her death, her insistence on standing by her beliefs still reads as bracingly modern.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Lillian Hellman
- Name (Japanese)
- リリアン・ヘルマン
- Reading
- りりあん・へるまん
- Born
- June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Gemini / Snake
- Origin
- New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- playwright / screenwriter / writer / autobiographer / librettist
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Columbia University
Awards & achievements
- 1970 National Book Award
- 1976 Paul Robeson Award
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- honorary doctor of Brandeis University
- 1975 Ladies' Home Journal Women of the Year
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Lillian Hellman born?
June 20, 1905 – June 30, 1984.
Where is Lillian Hellman from?
Lillian Hellman is from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
What does Lillian Hellman do?
Lillian Hellman works as playwright, screenwriter, writer, autobiographer, librettist.
Playwright — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-21
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.