About Harold Pinter
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Education:
-Royal Academy of Dramatic Art -Central School of Speech and Drama Areas of Specialty: Playwright, Screenwriter, Actor, Theatre Director, Poet |
Harold Pinter was an English playwright who was born on October 10, 1930. He was raised in Hackney, just beyond the borders of London’s traditional East End. Although Hackney was a step up on the social ladder to most, Pinter grew up in a lower class family. The circumstances and environment that encircled Pinter’s early life and school days allow us to comprehend the menacing quality underlying in his work. During World War II he witnessed much of the bombing of his city by Germans. He eventually escaped the blitz, but these firsthand experiences of war and destruction scarred him deeply. At the age of 18 Pinter was asked to enlist in the army but refused. In doing so, he was required to pay a fine for not completing his service to his country.
Pinter began his life in theatre as an actor under the stage name of David Baron, performing mostly in plays written by playwright Samuel Beckett. He was particularly inspired to write by Beckett who had created his own distinctive style, which was marked by terse dialogue and meaningful pauses (Raby 46). Pinter was also enormously influenced by the work of fellow absurdist writers Tom Stoppard and David Mamet. His plays are particularly famous for their use of understatement to convey characters’ thoughts and feelings (Baker 2). Playwright David Hare once said, "The essence of Pinter's singular appeal is that you sit down to every play he writes in certain expectation of the unexpected." Many believe that in his time, Pinter had been the most original, disturbing, and arresting talent in all of theatrical London.
Much of Pinter’s work emphasizes the fear lurking just around the corner, the sense that peace remains only an illusion that is vulnerable to sudden destruction by the appearance of an intruding neighbor, a stranger, or a figure from the past. In a program note to the March 1959, Royal Court Theatre production of The Room and The Dumb Waiter, Pinter pointed out that ‘There are no hard distinctions between what is true and what false’ (Baker 3).
Harold Pinter had one child of his own and with his second wife had six stepchildren. In 2001, Pinter was diagnosed with cancer; however, he continued to write, letting his sickness inspire many of his later works. In 2005, Pinter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature. Some saw the choice of Pinter, an antiwar campaigner, as a political statement. He wasn't well enough to accept the prize in person, and he gave his Nobel lecture in a pre-recorded video played at the event
Pinter began his life in theatre as an actor under the stage name of David Baron, performing mostly in plays written by playwright Samuel Beckett. He was particularly inspired to write by Beckett who had created his own distinctive style, which was marked by terse dialogue and meaningful pauses (Raby 46). Pinter was also enormously influenced by the work of fellow absurdist writers Tom Stoppard and David Mamet. His plays are particularly famous for their use of understatement to convey characters’ thoughts and feelings (Baker 2). Playwright David Hare once said, "The essence of Pinter's singular appeal is that you sit down to every play he writes in certain expectation of the unexpected." Many believe that in his time, Pinter had been the most original, disturbing, and arresting talent in all of theatrical London.
Much of Pinter’s work emphasizes the fear lurking just around the corner, the sense that peace remains only an illusion that is vulnerable to sudden destruction by the appearance of an intruding neighbor, a stranger, or a figure from the past. In a program note to the March 1959, Royal Court Theatre production of The Room and The Dumb Waiter, Pinter pointed out that ‘There are no hard distinctions between what is true and what false’ (Baker 3).
Harold Pinter had one child of his own and with his second wife had six stepchildren. In 2001, Pinter was diagnosed with cancer; however, he continued to write, letting his sickness inspire many of his later works. In 2005, Pinter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Literature. Some saw the choice of Pinter, an antiwar campaigner, as a political statement. He wasn't well enough to accept the prize in person, and he gave his Nobel lecture in a pre-recorded video played at the event
Most Notable Plays:
The Birthday Party (1957)
The Homecoming (1964)
Betrayal (1978)
Most Notable Screenplays:
The Servant (1963)
The Go-Between (1971)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
The Trial (1993)
Sleuth (2007)
The Birthday Party (1957)
The Homecoming (1964)
Betrayal (1978)
Most Notable Screenplays:
The Servant (1963)
The Go-Between (1971)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
The Trial (1993)
Sleuth (2007)
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Notable Awards:
-Companion of Honour (2002) -Nobel Prize in Literature (2005) -Légion d'honneur (2007) -David Cohen Prize (1995) -Laurence Olivier Award (1996) |