Hank Williams

Portrayed by Tom Hiddleston in I Saw the Light (2015).

His musical, "Hank Williams: Lost Highway" at the American Blues Theater in Chicago, Illinois was awarded the 2014 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Midsize Musical Production.

Was the 3rd inductee in the Native American Music Hall of Fame in 1999 because of his Muskogee Creek and Tsalagi (Cherokee) ancestry. Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Red Bow were numbers 1 and 2 respectively.

Ranked #1 on Life Magazine's list of "The 100 Most Important People in Country Music" (1994).

Pictured on one of four 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, featuring Country & Western music. This set of stamps also honored Patsy Cline, Bob Wills, and The Carter Family. Issued 25 September 1993 in sheet and booklet formats.

More than 35 years after his death his son, Hank Williams Jr., helped produce a father-and-son "duet" using one of the elder Hank's obscure acetate recordings. Hank Jr. dubbed in his father's vocals under a new, neo-classic country music bed, sang a verse of his own, and released the single. The song, "There's a Tear in My Beer," went to #7 on Billboard magazine's country singles chart in 1989.

Was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame (1987).

He was voted the 74th Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him into the Walkway of Stars (1969).

Was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1961).

Even after his 1953 death, he continued to score major country hits. That year his hit "Kaw-Liga" spent 13 weeks at #1 atop the Billboard magazine country charts that year; it was the #1 country song of the year 1953.

" Hits of 1952 were "Honky Tonk Blues," "Jambalaya," and "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive. "However, Hank's unprecedented success came with a price. A heavy drinker since his late teens, Hank proved to be an undependable performer when be began showing up for concerts drunk, and sometimes didn't show up at all.

In October 1952 Hank married his second wife, 19-year-old Billie Jean Jones, who was no more successful than Audrey in protecting Hank from himself. Also, the Drifting Cowboys departed that same month due to Hank's violent mood swings and unpredictability. He was still in demand for live performances, though.

" His 1951 hits included "Hey, Good Lookin'" "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You).

When Audrey divorced him in 1951 due to their constant fights over his drinking, his band began to become disillusioned with him, too, and the Grand Ole Opry suspended him from appearing at live shows.

In 1949, after the birth of Hank and Audrey's son Hank Williams Jr.

, Hank was asked to join the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where he made his stage debut on June 11, 1949.

From 1949 to 1950, Hank became country music's top artist, with hits like "Lovesick Blues," "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It," "Moanin' the Blues" and "Why Don't You Love Me.

In 1946 Hank and Audrey traveled to Nashville to secure a music publishing contract with producer Fred Rose, head of the Acuff-Rose publishing firm, who asked Hank to write a song on the spot. The song, "Mansion on the Hill", landed Hank a publishing contract with Acuff-Rose.

Hank met his first wife Audrey Williams during a traveling medicine show and they were married in December 1944 at an Alabama gas station. Audrey was a strong-willed woman who became Hank's booking agent, road manager and promoter. It was she who encouraged the stage-frightened Hank to perform on stage and helped book gigs outside of Alabama.

During the late 1940s Hank--a tall, thin man who alway wore a short-brimmed, white cowboy hat--had his peak years when MGM Records signed him for a recording contract and he became a regular on "Louisiana Hayride", a KWKH radio show in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Hank Williams was born in September 1923 in a small Alabama farming community about 70 miles south of Montgomery.

His father was a railroad engineer who was also a victim of shell shock after a year of fighting in France in 1918 during World War I and spent many years in veterans hospitals. Hank's mother, Lillian Skipper Williams, played the organ in their local church and taught him gospel songs when he was six. When Hank turned 10 he taught himself to play the guitar, mostly by watching other guitarists. In his teens Hank learned to play and sing country songs that he heard on the family radio, and picked up some blues chords from a black friend who was a street musician named Tee-Tot (Rufe Payne). At the age of 14 Hank put together his own band, playing at hoedowns and other get-together, where he won a local talent contest competition with his composition "WPA Blues. " At 17, Hank put together a group called 'Hank Williams' Original Drifting Cowboys' and they successfully auditioned for the manager of WSFS Radio in Montgomery, where they played regularly on the air.