Oscar-winning UK playwright Tom Stoppard dies aged 88

LAST UPDATE | 3 hrs ago

OSCAR-WINNING PLAYWRIGHT Tom Stoppard has died at the age of 88.

His agency confirmed his death in a statement.

“We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved client and friend, Tom Stoppard, has died peacefully at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family,” the talent agency said.

“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language.”

The Czech-born British playwright wrote the screenplay for 1998 film Shakespeare in Love, for which he won an Academy Award.

He was also behind the screenplays for 2012 film Anna Karenina, which starred Kiera Knightley, and Brazil (1985).

His notable plays include Travesties, The Real Thing, and Arcadia.

Over his six-decade career, Stoppard earned Tony and Olivier awards, as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for his and Marc Norman’s 1998 screenplay Shakespeare In Love, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, and Joseph Fiennes.

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Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard was forced to flee his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain.

After working as a journalist and theatre critic he began writing plays for radio and TV.

His career as a playwright did not take off, however, until the 1960s with Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before going on to the National Theatre and later Broadway.

The play, which focuses on two minor characters from Hamlet, won several awards including four Tonys in 1968.

He went on to write a number of plays including Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Arcadia, and The Coast of Utopia trilogy set in 19th century Russia.

In 2020 he released Leopoldstadt, a play set in Vienna’s Jewish Quarter in the early 20th century.

The semi-autobiographical piece won him an Olivier for best new play as well as four Tony Awards.

Stoppard also wrote for TV, radio and film, with much of his work exploring complex philosophical and political themes.

He was knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his services to literature.

Additional reporting by Press Association

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