diff --git a/django/template/__init__.py b/django/template/__init__.py
index d01d73e15e..6fd8a03250 100644
--- a/django/template/__init__.py
+++ b/django/template/__init__.py
@@ -580,6 +580,8 @@ class FilterExpression(object):
     def args_check(name, func, provided):
         provided = list(provided)
         plen = len(provided)
+        # Check to see if a decorator is providing the real function.
+        func = getattr(func, '_decorated_function', func)
         args, varargs, varkw, defaults = getargspec(func)
         # First argument is filter input.
         args.pop(0)
diff --git a/django/template/defaultfilters.py b/django/template/defaultfilters.py
index a95a5dff6f..9c72201984 100644
--- a/django/template/defaultfilters.py
+++ b/django/template/defaultfilters.py
@@ -8,6 +8,42 @@ import random as random_module
 
 register = Library()
 
+#######################
+# STRING DECORATOR    #
+#######################
+
+def smart_string(obj):
+    # FUTURE: Unicode strings should probably be normalized to a specific
+    # encoding and non-unicode strings should be converted to unicode too.
+#    if isinstance(obj, unicode):
+#        obj = obj.encode(settings.DEFAULT_CHARSET)
+#    else:
+#        obj = unicode(obj, settings.DEFAULT_CHARSET)
+    # FUTURE: Replace dumb string logic below with cool unicode logic above.
+    if not isinstance(obj, basestring):
+        obj = str(obj)
+    return obj
+
+def stringfilter(func):
+    """
+    Decorator for filters which should only receive strings. The object passed
+    as the first positional argument will be converted to a string.
+    """
+    def _dec(*args, **kwargs):
+        if args:
+            args = list(args)
+            args[0] = smart_string(args[0])
+        return func(*args, **kwargs)
+        
+    # Make sure the internal name is the original function name because this
+    # is the internal name of the filter if passed directly to Library().filter
+    _dec.__name__ = func.__name__
+    
+    # Include a reference to the real function (used to check original
+    # arguments by the template parser).
+    _dec._decorated_function = getattr(func, '_decorated_function', func)
+    return _dec
+
 ###################
 # STRINGS         #
 ###################
@@ -16,16 +52,18 @@ register = Library()
 def addslashes(value):
     "Adds slashes - useful for passing strings to JavaScript, for example."
     return value.replace('\\', '\\\\').replace('"', '\\"').replace("'", "\\'")
+addslashes = stringfilter(addslashes)
 
 def capfirst(value):
     "Capitalizes the first character of the value"
-    value = str(value)
     return value and value[0].upper() + value[1:]
-
+capfirst = stringfilter(capfirst)
+ 
 def fix_ampersands(value):
     "Replaces ampersands with ``&`` entities"
     from django.utils.html import fix_ampersands
     return fix_ampersands(value)
+fix_ampersands = stringfilter(fix_ampersands)
 
 def floatformat(text, arg=-1):
     """
@@ -52,7 +90,7 @@ def floatformat(text, arg=-1):
     try:
         d = int(arg)
     except ValueError:
-        return str(f)
+        return smart_string(f)
     m = f - int(f)
     if not m and d < 0:
         return '%d' % int(f)
@@ -69,22 +107,26 @@ def linenumbers(value):
     for i, line in enumerate(lines):
         lines[i] = ("%0" + width  + "d. %s") % (i + 1, escape(line))
     return '\n'.join(lines)
+linenumbers = stringfilter(linenumbers)
 
 def lower(value):
     "Converts a string into all lowercase"
     return value.lower()
+lower = stringfilter(lower)
 
 def make_list(value):
     """
     Returns the value turned into a list. For an integer, it's a list of
     digits. For a string, it's a list of characters.
     """
-    return list(str(value))
+    return list(value)
+make_list = stringfilter(make_list)
 
 def slugify(value):
     "Converts to lowercase, removes non-alpha chars and converts spaces to hyphens"
     value = re.sub('[^\w\s-]', '', value).strip().lower()
     return re.sub('[-\s]+', '-', value)
+slugify = stringfilter(slugify)
 
 def stringformat(value, arg):
     """
@@ -96,13 +138,14 @@ def stringformat(value, arg):
     of Python string formatting
     """
     try:
-        return ("%" + arg) % value
+        return ("%" + str(arg)) % value
     except (ValueError, TypeError):
         return ""
 
 def title(value):
     "Converts a string into titlecase"
     return re.sub("([a-z])'([A-Z])", lambda m: m.group(0).lower(), value.title())
+title = stringfilter(title)
 
 def truncatewords(value, arg):
     """
@@ -118,6 +161,7 @@ def truncatewords(value, arg):
     if not isinstance(value, basestring):
         value = str(value)
     return truncate_words(value, length)
+truncatewords = stringfilter(truncatewords)
 
 def truncatewords_html(value, arg):
     """
@@ -133,10 +177,12 @@ def truncatewords_html(value, arg):
     if not isinstance(value, basestring):
         value = str(value)
     return truncate_html_words(value, length)
+truncatewords_html = stringfilter(truncatewords_html)
 
 def upper(value):
     "Converts a string into all uppercase"
     return value.upper()
+upper = stringfilter(upper)
 
 def urlencode(value):
     "Escapes a value for use in a URL"
@@ -144,11 +190,13 @@ def urlencode(value):
     if not isinstance(value, basestring):
         value = str(value)
     return urllib.quote(value)
+urlencode = stringfilter(urlencode)
 
 def urlize(value):
     "Converts URLs in plain text into clickable links"
     from django.utils.html import urlize
     return urlize(value, nofollow=True)
+urlize = stringfilter(urlize)
 
 def urlizetrunc(value, limit):
     """
@@ -159,10 +207,12 @@ def urlizetrunc(value, limit):
     """
     from django.utils.html import urlize
     return urlize(value, trim_url_limit=int(limit), nofollow=True)
+urlizetrunc = stringfilter(urlizetrunc)
 
 def wordcount(value):
     "Returns the number of words"
     return len(value.split())
+wordcount = stringfilter(wordcount)
 
 def wordwrap(value, arg):
     """
@@ -171,7 +221,8 @@ def wordwrap(value, arg):
     Argument: number of characters to wrap the text at.
     """
     from django.utils.text import wrap
-    return wrap(str(value), int(arg))
+    return wrap(value, int(arg))
+wordwrap = stringfilter(wordwrap)
 
 def ljust(value, arg):
     """
@@ -179,7 +230,8 @@ def ljust(value, arg):
 
     Argument: field size
     """
-    return str(value).ljust(int(arg))
+    return value.ljust(int(arg))
+ljust = stringfilter(ljust)
 
 def rjust(value, arg):
     """
@@ -187,15 +239,18 @@ def rjust(value, arg):
 
     Argument: field size
     """
-    return str(value).rjust(int(arg))
+    return value.rjust(int(arg))
+rjust = stringfilter(rjust)
 
 def center(value, arg):
     "Centers the value in a field of a given width"
-    return str(value).center(int(arg))
+    return value.center(int(arg))
+center = stringfilter(center)
 
 def cut(value, arg):
     "Removes all values of arg from the given string"
     return value.replace(arg, '')
+cut = stringfilter(cut)
 
 ###################
 # HTML STRINGS    #
@@ -205,15 +260,18 @@ def escape(value):
     "Escapes a string's HTML"
     from django.utils.html import escape
     return escape(value)
+escape = stringfilter(escape)
 
 def linebreaks(value):
     "Converts newlines into <p> and <br />s"
     from django.utils.html import linebreaks
     return linebreaks(value)
+linebreaks = stringfilter(linebreaks)
 
 def linebreaksbr(value):
     "Converts newlines into <br />s"
     return value.replace('\n', '<br />')
+linebreaksbr = stringfilter(linebreaksbr)
 
 def removetags(value, tags):
     "Removes a space separated list of [X]HTML tags from the output"
@@ -224,13 +282,13 @@ def removetags(value, tags):
     value = starttag_re.sub('', value)
     value = endtag_re.sub('', value)
     return value
+removetags = stringfilter(removetags)
 
 def striptags(value):
     "Strips all [X]HTML tags"
     from django.utils.html import strip_tags
-    if not isinstance(value, basestring):
-        value = str(value)
     return strip_tags(value)
+striptags = stringfilter(striptags)
 
 ###################
 # LISTS           #
@@ -265,7 +323,7 @@ def first(value):
 def join(value, arg):
     "Joins a list with a string, like Python's ``str.join(list)``"
     try:
-        return arg.join(map(str, value))
+        return arg.join(map(smart_string, value))
     except AttributeError: # fail silently but nicely
         return value
 
diff --git a/docs/templates_python.txt b/docs/templates_python.txt
index a6b565ed5c..b6bfe67da2 100644
--- a/docs/templates_python.txt
+++ b/docs/templates_python.txt
@@ -654,6 +654,16 @@ decorator instead::
 If you leave off the ``name`` argument, as in the second example above, Django
 will use the function's name as the filter name.
 
+Template filters which expect strings
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+If you are writing a template filter which only expects a string as the first
+argument, you should use the included decorator ``to_str`` which will convert
+an object to it's string value before being passed to your function::
+
+    def lower(value):
+    	return value.lower()
+    lower = template.to_str(lower)
+
 Writing custom template tags
 ----------------------------
 
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/defaultfilters/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/defaultfilters/tests.py
index b4ec9a0b03..c850806052 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/defaultfilters/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/defaultfilters/tests.py
@@ -388,7 +388,53 @@ False
 >>> phone2numeric('0800 flowers')
 '0800 3569377'
 
-
+# Filters shouldn't break if passed non-strings
+>>> addslashes(123)
+'123'
+>>> linenumbers(123)
+'1. 123'
+>>> lower(123)
+'123'
+>>> make_list(123)
+['1', '2', '3']
+>>> slugify(123)
+'123'
+>>> title(123)
+'123'
+>>> truncatewords(123, 2)
+'123'
+>>> upper(123)
+'123'
+>>> urlencode(123)
+'123'
+>>> urlize(123)
+'123'
+>>> urlizetrunc(123, 1)
+'123'
+>>> wordcount(123)
+1
+>>> wordwrap(123, 2)
+'123'
+>>> ljust('123', 4)
+'123 '
+>>> rjust('123', 4)
+' 123'
+>>> center('123', 5)
+' 123 '
+>>> center('123', 6)
+' 123  '
+>>> cut(123, '2')
+'13'
+>>> escape(123)
+'123'
+>>> linebreaks(123)
+'<p>123</p>'
+>>> linebreaksbr(123)
+'123'
+>>> removetags(123, 'a')
+'123'
+>>> striptags(123)
+'123'
 
 """