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{{short description|American actor}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Other people|Thomas Phillips}}
[[File:Thomas Hal Phillips.jpg|thumb|Phillips circa 1964]]
⚫
'''Thomas Hal Phillips''' (October 11, 1922 – April 3, 2007) was an American novelist, [[actor]] and [[screenwriter]].

⚫
'''Thomas Hal Phillips''' (October 11, 1922 – April 3, 2007) was an [[United States|American]] novelist, [[actor]] and [[screenwriter]].


== Biography ==
== Biography ==
=== Early life ===
=== Early life ===
Phillips was born on October 11, 1922 on a farm between [[Corinth, Mississippi|Corinth]] and [[Kossuth, Mississippi|Kossuth]] in [[Alcorn County, Mississippi|Alcorn County]], northeastern [[Mississippi]].<ref name="mwm">{{cite web |url=http://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/writers/thomas-phillips.html |title=Thomas Hal Phillips |publisher=Mississippi Writers and Musicians |accessdate=August 14, 2017}}</ref><ref name="stuart" /> He was one of five sons and a daughter born to William Thomas Phillips, a farmer of English descent, and Ollie Fare Phillips, a schoolteacher with Scottish and Irish ancestry. The family moved in the 1940s to Kossuth so that the children might gain a better education.<ref name="stuart" /><ref name="lloyd">{{cite book |title=Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967 |first=James B. |last=Lloyd |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=1981 |isbn=978-1-61703-418-3 |pages=370-372 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=RfXGJBB1HvoC&pg=PA370}}</ref> After schooling in Kossuth, Phillips attended [[Hinds Community College|Hinds Junior College]].<ref name="touring">{{cite book |title=Touring Literary Mississippi |first1=Patti Carr |last1=Black |first2=Marion |last2=Barnwell |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-57806-367-3 |pages=194-197 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EVLjDK5othUC&pg=PA194}}</ref>
Phillips was born on October 11, 1922, on a farm between [[Corinth, Mississippi|Corinth]] and [[Kossuth, Mississippi|Kossuth]] in [[Alcorn County, Mississippi|Alcorn County]], northeastern [[Mississippi]].<ref name="mwm">{{cite web|url=http://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/writers/thomas-phillips.html|title=Thomas Hal Phillips|publisher=Mississippi Writers and Musicians|accessdate=August 14, 2017}}</ref><ref name="stuart"/>


He was one of five sons and a daughter born to William Thomas Phillips, a farmer of English descent, and Ollie Fare Phillips, a schoolteacher with Scottish and Irish ancestry. The family moved in the 1940s to Kossuth so that the children might gain a better education.<ref name="stuart" /><ref name="lloyd">{{cite book|title=Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967|first=James B.|last=Lloyd|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=1981|isbn=978-1-61703-418-3|pages=370–72|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfXGJBB1HvoC&pg=PA370}}</ref>
⚫
Phillips served in the [[United States Navy]] in the [[Mediterranean]] during [[World War II]], after obtaining a degree in social science from [[Mississippi State University]] in 1943.<ref name="southernwriters">{{cite book |title=Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary |editor1-first=Joseph M. |editor1-last=Flora |editor2-first=Amber |editor2-last=Vogel |page=316 |publisher=LSU Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-8071-3123-7 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xxd451POnpYC&pg=PA316}}</ref> He then used the [[G.I. Bill]] to finance a [[master's degree]] in writing at the [[University of Alabama]], which resulted in a thesis that later became his first novel, ''The Bitterweed Path''.<ref name="stuart" /> His adviser was [[Hudson Strode]] and the thesis won Phillips a [[Rosenwald Fund|Julius Rosenwald Fellowship]] in 1947 and the [[Eugene F. Saxton Award]] in 1948.<ref name="southernwriters" />
After schooling in Kossuth, Phillips attended [[Hinds Community College|Hinds Junior College]].<ref name="touring">{{cite book|title=Touring Literary Mississippi|first1=Patti Carr|last1=Black|first2=Marion|last2=Barnwell|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2002|isbn=978-1-57806-367-3|pages=194–97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVLjDK5othUC&pg=PA194}}</ref>


⚫
Phillips served in the [[United States Navy]] in the [[Mediterranean]] during [[World War II]], after obtaining a degree in social science from [[Mississippi State University]] in 1943.<ref name="southernwriters">{{cite book|title=Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary|editor1-first=Joseph M.|editor1-last=Flora|editor2-first=Amber|editor2-last=Vogel|page=316|publisher=LSU Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-8071-3123-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xxd451POnpYC&pg=PA316}}</ref>
⚫
Upon completion of his degree in 1948, Phillips taught for two years at [[Southern Methodist University]] in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], [[Texas]]. He was able to study in France in 1950 when he was awarded a [[Fulbright Fellowship]].<ref name="lloyd" /><ref name="southernwriters" />

After the war, he used the [[G.I. Bill]] to finance a [[master's degree]] in writing at the [[University of Alabama]], which resulted in a thesis that later became his first novel, ''The Bitterweed Path''.<ref name="stuart"/> His adviser was [[Hudson Strode]] and the thesis won Phillips a [[Rosenwald Fund|Julius Rosenwald Fellowship]] in 1947 and the [[Eugene F. Saxton Award]] in 1948.<ref name="southernwriters"/>

⚫
Upon completion of his degree in 1948, Phillips taught for two years at [[Southern Methodist University]] in [[Dallas, Texas]]. He was able to study in France in 1950 when he was awarded a [[Fulbright Fellowship]].<ref name="lloyd"/><ref name="southernwriters"/>


=== Writing ===
=== Writing ===
Phillips's first novel&nbsp;– ''The Bitterweed Path''&nbsp;– was first published in hardback in 1950 by [[Rinehart & Company]] and was advertised, at the time, as "something new in the literature dealing with man's love for man&nbsp;... in a period when even psychologists knew little of such matters, and people in small towns new nothing."{{citation needed|reason=Your explanation here|date=November 2014}} The book depicts the struggles of two gay men in the [[Southern United States]] at the turn of the 20th century, and how an unconventional love triangle involving these two men, and one of their fathers, impacts their three marriages in small-town, [[Deep South]]. The book's theme was notable in an era of repression, and even more so for coming from a particularly repressive state.<ref name="missenc" /><ref name="howard" />
Phillips's first novel&nbsp;– ''The Bitterweed Path''&nbsp;– was first published in hardback in 1950 by [[Rinehart & Company]] and was advertised, at the time, as "something new in the literature dealing with man's love for man&nbsp;... in a period when even psychologists knew little of such matters, and people in small towns knew nothing."{{citation needed|reason=Your explanation here|date=November 2014}} The book depicts the struggles of two gay men in the [[Southern United States]] at the turn of the 20th century, and how an unconventional love triangle involving these two men, and one of their fathers, impacts their three marriages in small-town, [[Deep South]]. The book's theme was notable in an era of repression, and even more so for coming from a particularly repressive state.<ref name="missenc"/><ref name="howard"/>


Phillips, for whom Corinth-based writer [[Henry Dalton (poet)|Henry Dalton]] was a mentor,<ref name="touring" /> was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] for work in fiction in 1953 and again in 1956.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/thomas-hal-phillips/ |title=Thomas Hal Phillips |accessdate=August 14, 2017 |publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}}</ref> His next four books, including another&nbsp;– ''Kangaroo Hollow''&nbsp;– that had a queer theme, were less successful than the first, even though they were well-received by literary critics.<ref name="howard" /> These literary efforts had been in part subsidised by his investment in his brother Frank's trucking business.<ref name="stuart" /> By the late 1950s, he had given up writing novels<ref name="howard">{{cite book |title=Men Like That: A Southern Queer History |first=John |last=Howard |edition=Reprinted, revised |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-226-35470-5 |pages=188-191 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=q077jM9qDvwC&pg=PA188}}</ref> and did not return to the field until 2002, when ''Red Midnight'' was published.<ref name="missenc" />
Phillips, for whom Corinth-based writer [[Henry Dalton (poet)|Henry Dalton]] was a mentor,<ref name="touring"/> was awarded a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] for work in fiction in 1953 and again in 1956.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/thomas-hal-phillips/|title=Thomas Hal Phillips|accessdate=August 14, 2017|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation}}</ref> His next four books, including another&nbsp;– ''Kangaroo Hollow''&nbsp;– that had a queer theme, were less successful than the first, even though they were well-received by literary critics.<ref name="howard"/> These literary efforts had been in part subsidised by his investment in his brother Frank's trucking business.<ref name="stuart"/>
By the late 1950s, he had given up writing novels<ref name="howard">{{cite book|title=Men Like That: A Southern Queer History|first=John|last=Howard|edition=Reprinted, revised|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=2001|isbn=978-0-226-35470-5 |pages=188–91|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q077jM9qDvwC&pg=PA188}}</ref> and did not return to the field until 2002, when ''Red Midnight'' was published.<ref name="missenc"/>


=== Politics ===
=== Politics ===
[[File:Cliff Finch, Evelyn Gandy and Thomas Hal Phillips. (8795718613).jpg|thumb|Phillips (left) with Mississippi Lieutenant Governor [[Evelyn Gandy]] and Governor [[Cliff Finch]]]]
Around 1958-1960,{{efn|Sources give different years for his appointment to the Mississippi Public Service Commission.<ref name="lloyd" /><ref name="touring" /><ref name="missenc" />}} Phillips was appointed to the [[Mississippi Public Service Commission]] to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of his younger brother, [[Lawyer|attorney]] [[Rubel Phillips]]. He resigned that post in 1963 so that he could help Rubel in what proved to be an unsuccessful [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[gubernatorial]] campaign.<ref name="touring" /> According to Courtney Chartier, Thomas Phillips managed that campaign and another unsuccessful attempt by Rubel in 1967.<ref name="missenc" /> However, Jan Stuart says that Thomas wrote speeches and literature for Rubel but was himself a "dyed-in-the-wool" [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]: {{quote|To the young Tom, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was God. He would later admire, if not exalt, JFK, Jimmy Carter and, despite the blotch of scandal and impeachment, William Jefferson Clinton.<ref name="stuart">{{cite book |title=The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece |first=Jan |last=Stuart |publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-87910-981-3 |pages=68-70 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ELwzIw6G8vgC&pg=PA68}}</ref>}}
Around 1958-1960,{{efn|Sources give different years for his appointment to the Mississippi Public Service Commission.<ref name="lloyd"/><ref name="touring"/><ref name="missenc"/>}} Phillips was appointed to the [[Mississippi Public Service Commission]] to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of his younger brother, [[Lawyer|attorney]] [[Rubel Phillips]]. He resigned that post in 1963 so that he could help Rubel in what proved to be an unsuccessful [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[gubernatorial]] campaign.<ref name="touring"/> Phillips managed that campaign and another unsuccessful attempt by Rubel in 1967.<ref name="missenc"/> However, Jan Stuart says that Thomas wrote speeches and literature for Rubel but was himself a "dyed-in-the-wool" [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]]: {{blockquote|To the young Tom, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was God. He would later admire, if not exalt, JFK, Jimmy Carter and, despite the blotch of scandal and impeachment, William Jefferson Clinton.<ref name="stuart">{{cite book |title=The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece|first=Jan|last=Stuart|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|year=2003|isbn=978-0-87910-981-3|pages=68–70|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELwzIw6G8vgC&pg=PA68}}</ref>}}


=== Film and later life ===
===Film and later life===
The film rights to Phillips's 1955 novel ''The Loved and the Unloved'' were sold<ref name="touring" /> and in the 1960s, he began working with Hollywood director [[Robert Altman]]. He contributed in various capacities to films such as ''[[Thieves Like Us (film)|Thieves Like Us]]'' (1974, associate producer)<ref name="lentz">{{cite book |title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2007: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture |first=Harris M. |last=Lentz III |publisher=McFarland |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-7864-3481-7 |page=289 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=t3zGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA289}}</ref> and ''[[The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (film)|The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman]]'', as well as to ''[[Nashville (film)|Nashville]]'', a movie in which he also played an off-screen character.<ref name="mwm" /><ref name="wmc">{{cite news |work=wmctv.com |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6323925 |title=Novelist, screenwriter Phillips dies at 84 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927043349/http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6323925|archivedate=September 27, 2007 |date=September 27, 2007}}</ref> He was a consultant for ''[[Ode to Billy Joe (film)|Ode to Billy Joe]]'' in 1976, when he was the first chairman of the [[Mississippi Film Commission]].<ref name="howard" />
The film rights to Phillips's 1955 novel ''The Loved and the Unloved'' were sold<ref name="touring"/> and in the 1960s, he began working with Hollywood director [[Robert Altman]]. He contributed in various capacities to films such as ''[[Thieves Like Us (film)|Thieves Like Us]]'' (1974, associate producer),<ref name="lentz">{{cite book|title=Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2007: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture|first=Harris M.|last=Lentz III|publisher=McFarland|year=2008|isbn=978-0-7864-3481-7|page=289|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t3zGCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA289}}</ref> ''[[The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (film)|The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman]]'' (not an Altman film) and ''[[Nashville (film)|Nashville]]''.<ref name="mwm"/><ref name="wmc">{{cite news|work=wmctv.com|agency=Associated Press|url=http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6323925|title=Novelist, screenwriter Phillips dies at 84|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927043349/http://www.wmcstations.com/Global/story.asp?S=6323925|archivedate=September 27, 2007|date=September 27, 2007}}</ref>


He was a consultant for ''[[Ode to Billy Joe (film)|Ode to Billy Joe]]'' in 1976, when he was the first chairman of the [[Mississippi Film Commission]].<ref name="howard"/>
⚫
Phillips, who did not marry,<ref name="howard" /> spent much of his post-military life living alternately between California and Corinth, where he usually resided at the Phillips Brothers Truck Stop that he and Frank had opened in 1960.<ref name="touring" /> He died on April 3, 2007 in Kossuth, aged 84.<ref name="missenc" />


⚫
Phillips, who never married,<ref name="howard"/> spent much of his post-military life living alternately between California and Corinth, where he usually resided at the Phillips Brothers Truck Stop that he and Frank had opened in 1960.<ref name="touring"/> He died on April 3, 2007, in Kossuth, aged 84.<ref name="missenc"/>
⚫
== Works ==

⚫
=== Books ===
⚫
==Works==
⚫
Phillips wrote six novels:<ref name="missenc">{{cite book |title=The Mississippi Encyclopedia |editor1-first=Ted |editor1-last=Ownby |editor2-first=Charles Reagan |editor2-last=Wilson |editor3-first=Ann J. |editor3-last=Abadie |editor4-first=Odie |editor4-last=Lindsey |editor5-first=James G. |editor5-last=Thomas |first=Courtney |last=Chartier |chapter=Phillips, Thomas Hal |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-4968-1159-2 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HWolDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA993&ots=fybqJj0I4C&dq=phillips%20%22red%20midnight%22&pg=PA993 |page=993}}</ref>
⚫
===Books===
⚫
Phillips wrote six novels:<ref name="missenc">{{cite book|title=The Mississippi Encyclopedia|editor1-first=Ted|editor1-last=Ownby|editor2-first=Charles Reagan|editor2-last=Wilson|editor3-first=Ann J.|editor3-last=Abadie|editor4-first=Odie|editor4-last=Lindsey|editor5-first=James G.|editor5-last=Thomas|first=Courtney|last=Chartier|chapter=Phillips, Thomas Hal|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2017|isbn=978-1-4968-1159-2|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HWolDwAAQBAJ&q=phillips%20%22red%20midnight%22&pg=PA993|page=993}}</ref>


*''The Bitterweed Path'' (1950)
*''The Bitterweed Path'' (1950)
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*''Red Midnight'' (2002)
*''Red Midnight'' (2002)


=== Movies ===
===Selected filmography===
*''Walking Tall II''
*''[[Tarzan's Fight for Life]]'' (1958)
*''[[Tarzan's Fight for Life]]'' (1958)
*''Huckleberry Finn''
*''Minstrel Man''
*''[[California Split]]'' (1974)
*''[[California Split]]'' (1974)
*''Thieves Like Us''' (1974; associate producer)
*''Thieves Like Us'' (1974; associate producer)
*''Nashville'' (1975; consultant and voice actor)<ref name="lentz" />
*''Nashville'' (1975; consultant and voice actor)<ref name="lentz"/>
*''[[Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson]]'' (1976)
*''[[Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson]]'' (1976)
*''Ode to Billy Joe'' (1976; consultant)
*''Ode to Billy Joe'' (1976; consultant)
*''[[Nightmare in Badham County]]'' (1976; actor)<ref name="lentz" />
*''[[Nightmare in Badham County]]'' (1976; actor)<ref name="lentz"/>
*''[[The Brain Machine (1977 film)|The Brain Machine]]'' (1977; writer, producer and actor)<ref name="lentz" />
*''The Brain Machine'' (1977; writer, producer and actor)<ref name="lentz"/>
*''[[Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (film)|Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry]]'' (1978; screenwriter and actor)<ref name="lentz" /><ref>{{cite book |title=Touring Literary Mississippi |first1=Patti Carr |last1=Black |first2=Marion |last2=Barnwell |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-57806-367-3 |page=92 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EVLjDK5othUC&pg=PA92}}</ref>
*''[[Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (film)|Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry]]'' (1978; screenwriter and actor)<ref name="lentz"/><ref>{{cite book|title=Touring Literary Mississippi|first1=Patti Carr|last1=Black|first2=Marion|last2=Barnwell|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2002|isbn=978-1-57806-367-3|page=92|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVLjDK5othUC&pg=PA92}}</ref>
*''Barn Burning'' (1980; actor)<ref name="lentz" />
*''Barn Burning'' (1980; actor)<ref name="lentz"/>
*''[[O.C. and Stiggs]]''(1987; actor)<ref name="lentz" />
*''[[O.C. and Stiggs]]'' (1987; actor)<ref name="lentz"/>
*''[[Matewan]]'' (1987; actor)<ref name="lentz" />
*''[[Matewan]]'' (1987; actor)<ref name="lentz"/>
*''[[Cookie's Fortune]]'' (1999)
*''[[Cookie's Fortune]]'' (1999)


⚫
===Short stories===
Phillips's acting roles were often minor parts.<ref name="lentz" />

⚫
=== Short stories ===
Phillips's short stories include:<ref name="lloyd" />
Phillips's short stories include:<ref name="lloyd" />
*"A Touch of Earth", published in the ''[[Southwest Review]]'' of 1949 and subsequently in the ''Best American Short Stories of 1949'' collection
*"A Touch of Earth", published in the ''[[Southwest Review]]'' of 1949 and subsequently in the ''Best American Short Stories of 1949'' collection
Line 70: Line 75:


== Further reading ==
== Further reading ==
*{{cite book |title=Invisible Suburbs: Recovering Protest Fiction in the 1950s United States |editor-first=Josh |editor-last=Lukin |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-934110-87-4 |chapter=Good Old Boy Masculinity and Same-Sex Desire in ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' and ''The Bitterweed Path'' |first=Harry |last=Thomas |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=8VcKhiVR3lkC&pg=PA3}}
*{{cite book |title=Invisible Suburbs: Recovering Protest Fiction in the 1950s United States |editor-first=Josh |editor-last=Lukin |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-934110-87-4 |chapter=Good Old Boy Masculinity and Same-Sex Desire in ''Cat on a Hot Tin Roof'' and ''The Bitterweed Path'' |first=Harry |last=Thomas |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8VcKhiVR3lkC&pg=PA3}}
*{{cite newspaper |work=New York Times Book Review |date=August 28, 1955 |page=15 |title=Talk with Mr Phillips |first=Lewis |last=Nichols}}
*{{cite news |work=New York Times Book Review |date=August 28, 1955 |page=15 |title=Talk with Mr Phillips |first=Lewis |last=Nichols}}
*{{cite journal |journal=Notes on Mississippi Writers |year=1973 |volume=6 |pages=3-13 |first=George M. |last=Kelly |title=An Interview with Thomas Hal Phillips}}
*{{cite journal |journal=Notes on Mississippi Writers |year=1973 |volume=6 |pages=3–13 |first=George M. |last=Kelly |title=An Interview with Thomas Hal Phillips}}


== External links ==
== External links ==
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[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:American male film actors]]
[[Category:American male film actors]]
[[Category:People from Corinth, Mississippi]]
[[Category:People from Alcorn County, Mississippi]]
⚫
[[Category:Guggenheim Fellows]]
[[Category:O. Henry Award winners]]
[[Category:Fulbright Scholars]]
[[Category:Southern Methodist University faculty]]
[[Category:Southern Methodist University faculty]]
[[Category:Mississippi State University alumni]]
[[Category:Mississippi State University alumni]]
[[Category:University of Alabama alumni]]
[[Category:University of Alabama alumni]]
[[Category:Novelists from Mississippi]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II]]
⚫
[[Category:Novelists from Texas]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Texas]]
[[Category:Screenwriters from Mississippi]]
[[Category:20th-century American male actors]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]

Latest revision as of 14:49, 17 July 2024

Phillips circa 1964

Thomas Hal Phillips (October 11, 1922 – April 3, 2007) was an American novelist, actor and screenwriter.

Biography

[edit]

Early life

[edit]

Phillips was born on October 11, 1922, on a farm between Corinth and Kossuth in Alcorn County, northeastern Mississippi.[1][2]

He was one of five sons and a daughter born to William Thomas Phillips, a farmer of English descent, and Ollie Fare Phillips, a schoolteacher with Scottish and Irish ancestry. The family moved in the 1940s to Kossuth so that the children might gain a better education.[2][3] After schooling in Kossuth, Phillips attended Hinds Junior College.[4]

Phillips served in the United States Navy in the Mediterranean during World War II, after obtaining a degree in social science from Mississippi State University in 1943.[5]

After the war, he used the G.I. Bill to finance a master's degree in writing at the University of Alabama, which resulted in a thesis that later became his first novel, The Bitterweed Path.[2] His adviser was Hudson Strode and the thesis won Phillips a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in 1947 and the Eugene F. Saxton Award in 1948.[5]

Upon completion of his degree in 1948, Phillips taught for two years at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. He was able to study in France in 1950 when he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship.[3][5]

Writing

[edit]

Phillips's first novel – The Bitterweed Path – was first published in hardback in 1950 by Rinehart & Company and was advertised, at the time, as "something new in the literature dealing with man's love for man ... in a period when even psychologists knew little of such matters, and people in small towns knew nothing."[citation needed] The book depicts the struggles of two gay men in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and how an unconventional love triangle involving these two men, and one of their fathers, impacts their three marriages in small-town, Deep South. The book's theme was notable in an era of repression, and even more so for coming from a particularly repressive state.[6][7]

Phillips, for whom Corinth-based writer Henry Dalton was a mentor,[4] was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for work in fiction in 1953 and again in 1956.[8] His next four books, including another – Kangaroo Hollow – that had a queer theme, were less successful than the first, even though they were well-received by literary critics.[7] These literary efforts had been in part subsidised by his investment in his brother Frank's trucking business.[2]

By the late 1950s, he had given up writing novels[7] and did not return to the field until 2002, when Red Midnight was published.[6]

Politics

[edit]
Phillips (left) with Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Evelyn Gandy and Governor Cliff Finch

Around 1958-1960,[a] Phillips was appointed to the Mississippi Public Service Commission to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of his younger brother, attorney Rubel Phillips. He resigned that post in 1963 so that he could help Rubel in what proved to be an unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial campaign.[4] Phillips managed that campaign and another unsuccessful attempt by Rubel in 1967.[6] However, Jan Stuart says that Thomas wrote speeches and literature for Rubel but was himself a "dyed-in-the-wool" Democrat:

To the young Tom, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was God. He would later admire, if not exalt, JFK, Jimmy Carter and, despite the blotch of scandal and impeachment, William Jefferson Clinton.[2]

Film and later life

[edit]

The film rights to Phillips's 1955 novel The Loved and the Unloved were sold[4] and in the 1960s, he began working with Hollywood director Robert Altman. He contributed in various capacities to films such as Thieves Like Us (1974, associate producer),[9] The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (not an Altman film) and Nashville.[1][10]

He was a consultant for Ode to Billy Joe in 1976, when he was the first chairman of the Mississippi Film Commission.[7]

Phillips, who never married,[7] spent much of his post-military life living alternately between California and Corinth, where he usually resided at the Phillips Brothers Truck Stop that he and Frank had opened in 1960.[4] He died on April 3, 2007, in Kossuth, aged 84.[6]

Works

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Books

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Phillips wrote six novels:[6]

  • The Bitterweed Path (1950)
  • The Golden Lie (1951)
  • Search for a Hero (1952)
  • Kangaroo Hollow (1954), published only in the UK until 2000
  • The Loved and the Unloved (1955)
  • Red Midnight (2002)

Selected filmography

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Short stories

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Phillips's short stories include:[3]

  • "A Touch of Earth", published in the Southwest Review of 1949 and subsequently in the Best American Short Stories of 1949 collection
  • "The Shadow of an Arm", published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, 1950, was a winner in the 1951 O. Henry Awards
  • "Lone Bridge", published in the Southwest Review of 1951 and subsequently in the Best American Short Stories of 1949 collection
  • "Mostly in the Fields", published in the Virginia Quarterly Review, 1951 and subsequently used as a part of Search for a Hero

References

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Notes

  1. ^ Sources give different years for his appointment to the Mississippi Public Service Commission.[3][4][6]

Citations

  1. ^ a b "Thomas Hal Phillips". Mississippi Writers and Musicians. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e Stuart, Jan (2003). The Nashville Chronicles: The Making of Robert Altman's Masterpiece. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 68–70. ISBN 978-0-87910-981-3.
  3. ^ a b c d Lloyd, James B. (1981). Lives of Mississippi Authors, 1817–1967. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 370–72. ISBN 978-1-61703-418-3.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Black, Patti Carr; Barnwell, Marion (2002). Touring Literary Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 194–97. ISBN 978-1-57806-367-3.
  5. ^ a b c Flora, Joseph M.; Vogel, Amber, eds. (2006). Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary. LSU Press. p. 316. ISBN 978-0-8071-3123-7.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Chartier, Courtney (2017). "Phillips, Thomas Hal". In Ownby, Ted; Wilson, Charles Reagan; Abadie, Ann J.; Lindsey, Odie; Thomas, James G. (eds.). The Mississippi Encyclopedia. University Press of Mississippi. p. 993. ISBN 978-1-4968-1159-2.
  7. ^ a b c d e Howard, John (2001). Men Like That: A Southern Queer History (Reprinted, revised ed.). University of Chicago Press. pp. 188–91. ISBN 978-0-226-35470-5.
  8. ^ "Thomas Hal Phillips". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved August 14, 2017.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Lentz III, Harris M. (2008). Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2007: Film, Television, Radio, Theatre, Dance, Music, Cartoons and Pop Culture. McFarland. p. 289. ISBN 978-0-7864-3481-7.
  10. ^ "Novelist, screenwriter Phillips dies at 84". wmctv.com. Associated Press. September 27, 2007. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007.
  11. ^ Black, Patti Carr; Barnwell, Marion (2002). Touring Literary Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-57806-367-3.

Further reading

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