Beth Henley

Beth Henley (born Elizabeth Becker Henley on May 8, 1952 in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American screenwriter, actress and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright. She attended Southern Methodist University.

Her most famous play, "Crimes of the Heart", was her first produced professionally. It opened at the Actors Theatre of Louisville and then moved to New York. "Crimes of the Heart" won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as the award for Best American Play of 1981 from the New York Drama Critics' Circle. The play also earned Henley a Tony Award nomination, and her screenplay for the film version of "Crimes of the Heart" was nominated for an Oscar as Best Adapted Screenplay.

Henley adapted her play, "The Miss Firecracker Contest", into a 1989 film starring Holly Hunter entitled "Miss Firecracker".

Henley continues to write plays and screenplays from her adopted home in California.

Her latest play, "Ridiculous Fraud", played at the McCarter Theatre until June 11, 2006.

List of Plays

*"Am I Blue?"(1972)
*"Crimes of the Heart"(1978)
*"The Miss Firecracker Contest" (1979)
*"The Wake of Jamey Foster"(1981)
*"The Debutante Ball" (1985)
*"The Lucky Spot" (1986)
*"Abundance" (1990)
*"Control Freaks" (1992)
*"Signature" (1995)
*"L-Play" (1996)
*"Impossible Marriage" (1998)
*"Family Week" (2000)
*"Ridiculous Fraud" (2006)

Selected Filmography

*"Swing Shift" (1984), as actress
*"True Stories" (1986), as co-screenwriter
*"Nobody's Fool" (1986), as screenwriter
*"Crimes of the Heart" (1986), as screenwriter
*"Miss Firecracker" (1989), as screenwriter

External links

* [http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/henley_beth/ Biography]
* [http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00228/ The Beth Henley collection (MUM00228)] owned by the University of Mississippi Department of Archives and Special Collections.
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