William Hanley

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William Hanley was an American playwright, novelist, and scriptwriter. His parents were William and Anne Hanley. William Hanley, Sr was born in Liverpool, England in 1899, of Irish Catholic immigrants. He was a seaman prior to settling in the USA, and then worked as a housepainter. Shortly after Hanley's birth the family moved to Queens, New York. 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. He worked as a bank clerk, mail clerk, factory worker, and book salesman while writing his early scripts. William Hanley married Shelley Post, 1956, and married Pat Stanley, 1962.

Hanley was a successful Broadway and off Broadway playwright in the 1960s. Howard Taubman wrote in The New York Times in 1962, that Mr. Hanley "an uncommonly gifted writer." But the accolades, and a Tony nomination, did not provide commercial success. "Slow Dance" ran for 88 performances, the off Broadway plays had closed within a month.