Hellman, Lillian

Hellman, Lillian (1907-1984), American dramatist, whose plays are distinguished for the forcefulness of their subject matter, usually a condemnation of personal and social evil. They are also notable for character development and expert construction.

Hellman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 20, 1907, and educated at New York University and Columbia University. Among her plays are The Children's Hour (1934), in which a malicious child's lies ruin the lives of two school-teachers; The Little Foxes (1939), in which the members of a post-Civil War southern family struggle unscrupulously with one another for the family wealth; and The Watch on the Rhine (1941), in which a leader of the anti-Nazi Underground visiting the United States. is forced to kill a Nazi agent. This play won her a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. Hellman's other plays include The Searching Wind (1944); Another Part of the Forest (1946); The Lark (1955), a story of Joan of Arc, adapted from the play L'Alouette, by the French dramatist Jean Anouilh; and Candide (1956), based on the satire of the same name by Voltaire. Toys in the Attic (1960) won her a second New York Drama Critics' Circle Award. All (except Candide) have been made into films.

In 1952 she was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify. She discussed her own activities with so-called radical movements, but refused to talk about the involvement of any of her friends or acquaintances. She was not imprisoned, but many of her friends were, including her companion, Dashiell Hammett.

Hellman was awarded the 1970 National Book Award in arts and letters for her autobiography An Unfinished Woman; A Memoir (1969). This work was continued in Pentimento (1973), a collection of prose portraits of herself and others whose lives influenced hers; the 1977 film Julia was based on one of these sketches. The autobiography ended with Scoundrel Time (1976).

Hellman died in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on June 30, 1984.