Meade Roberts; Actor, Screenwriter and Playwright

Meade Roberts, 61, a screenwriter, playwright and actor who specialized in adaptations of Tennessee Williams’ works. Roberts produced scripts for films starring many of the top stars of the last three decades. His first screenplay, “The Fugitive Kind,” was a collaboration with Williams based on “Orpheus Descending.” The film, directed by Sidney Lumet, starred Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani and Joanne Woodward. Roberts did the screen adaptation of Williams’ “Summer and Smoke,” starring Geraldine Page and Laurence Harvey. He also wrote screenplays for “In the Cool of the Day,” with Jane Fonda, Peter Finch and Angela Lansbury; “The Stripper,” with Joanne Woodward based on a play by William Inge, and “Blue,” with Terence Stamp, Karl Malden and Ricardo Montalban. His plays included “A Palm Tree in a Rose Garden,” “Maidens and Mistresses,” and “Thornhill,” directed by his close friend, the late John Cassavetes. As a performer, he appeared as an actor-singer in Cassavetes’ films “The Killing of a Chinese Bookie” and “Opening Night.” In New York City on Monday of a heart attack.