William Hanley was an American playwright, novelist, and scriptwriter, born in Lorain, Ohio.
10 Facts About William Hanley
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William Hanley was related to the British writers James and Gerald Hanley, and the actress Ellen Hanley was his sister.
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William Hanley was a seaman before settling in the US, and then worked as a housepainter.
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William Hanley attended Cornell for a year, then served in the Army in the early 1950s, before enrolling at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, though he never pursued an acting career.
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William Hanley worked as a bank clerk, mail clerk, factory worker, and book salesman while writing his early scripts.
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William Hanley married Shelley Post, 1956, and married Pat Stanley, 1962.
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William Hanley was a successful Broadway and off Broadway playwright in the 1960s.
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Over a period of thirty years William Hanley wrote more than two dozen TV scripts.
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William Hanley was the original screenwriter on The Graduate, but walked off the project after getting notes he didn't agree with from director Mike Nichols.
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William Hanley was nominated for Emmys five times and won twice: a 1984 ABC movie Something About Amelia and in 1988 for the mini-series The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank, which starred Paul Scofield, Mary Steenburgen and, as Anne, Lisa Jacobs.