William Hanley, award-winning playwright and pioneering screenwriter, dies at age 80
Posted May 29, 2012 1:23 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW YORK, N.Y. – William Hanley, a Broadway playwright and award-winning screenwriter who scripted a pioneering TV film that dealt with incest, has died. He was 80.
His daughter, Katherine Hover, said he died Friday at his home in Ridgefield, Conn.
Hanley’s works include “Slow Dance on the Killing Ground” and “Mrs. Dally Has a Lover” and the teleplays “The Long Way Home” and “The Kennedys of Massachusetts.”
He won Emmys for the TV movies “The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank” and “Something About Amelia.”
“Amelia,” which first aired in 1984 on ABC, explored the largely taboo topic of parental sexual abuse. Ted Danson, then the star of hit sitcom “Cheers,” portrayed a doting, well-to-do father exposed as having had sexual relations with his teenage daughter. Glenn Close played the mother in the critically acclaimed, top-rated program, which also won Emmys for outstanding drama special and for young Roxanne Zal, who played the abused daughter.
In addition, Hanley wrote the screenplay for the 1969 film, “The Gypsy Moths,” as well as several novels.
Hanley is also survived by another daughter, Nell Hanley; a sister, Patricia Hanley; and three granddaughters.
