Trivia

One of Alfred Hitchcocks favorite screenwriters; Hitchcock even went so far as to add to the credits of Shadow of a Doubt (1943) a special dedication to Wilder, who wrote the film screenplay.

Introduced writer-director Garson Kanin to his future wife, actress-writer Ruth Gordon in 1940.

Pictured on a 32¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Literary Arts series, issued 17 April 1997.

He is most famous for his play "Our Town", which was first produced on Broadway in 1938. It has been made into a theatrical motion picture only once (so far), in 1940, with four members of the original cast and with the play's ending completely altered, and, many would say, ruined. It has been revived on Broadway several times, the latest revival (with Paul Newman) being produced in the fall of 2002 and broadcast on TV in 2003. Two of the play's revivals have been broadcast, but the play has been performed on television no fewer than five times since 1950. It has also been produced, and continues to be produced, by virtually every high school or college in the United States at one time or another.

Attended the MacDowell Colony in Petersborough, NH, on which he based Grover's Corner in "Our Town".

Harold Robbins' 1976 novel The Lonely Lady (later made into a movie starring Pia Zadora and Lloyd Bochner) includes among its main characters the famous playwright and screenwriter "Walter Thornton," whose name is clearly meant to evoke Thornton Wilder.

When the teenage Orson Welles returned to America from Europe, Wilder wrote a special letter of introduction for him to present to the legendary stage actress Katharine Cornell, which resulted in her offering him his professional acting work in the United States. Welles never forgot this kindness.

His works often contain derivations (some would say plagiarizations) from the novels of James Joyce.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 132, pp. 410-415. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.