Sir Peter Shaffer | |
|---|---|
 Shaffer in 1966 | |
| Born | Peter Levin Shaffer (1926-05-15)15 May 1926 Liverpool, England |
| Died | 6 June 2016(2016-06-06) (aged 90) Curraheen,County Cork, Ireland |
| Resting place | Highgate Cemetery |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Occupations |
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| Partner | Robert Leonard (d. 1990) |
| Relatives | Anthony Shaffer (brother) |
| Signature | |
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Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (15 May 1926 – 6 June 2016) was an Englishplaywright, screenwriter, and novelist. His best-known works are the playsEquus andAmadeus, both of which earned him theTony Award for Best Play. They were later adapted for the screen by Shaffer himself in1977 and1984, respectively. He was nominated for anAcademy Award for both screenplays, winning forAmadeus, which also earned him aGolden Globe Award. Shaffer also earned nominations for twoBAFTA Awards and aLaurence Olivier Award.
Shaffer was born to aJewish family inLiverpool, the son of Reka (née Fredman) and estate agent Jack Shaffer.[1] He grew up in London and was the identical twin brother of fellow playwrightAnthony Shaffer.[2] They had another brother, Brian.
He was educated at theHall School,Hampstead, andSt Paul's School, London, and subsequently he gained a scholarship toTrinity College, Cambridge, to study history. Shaffer was aBevin Boy coal miner during World War II, and took a number of jobs including bookstore clerk, and assistant at theNew York Public Library, before discovering his dramatic talents.[3]
Shaffer's first play,The Salt Land (1955), was presented onITV on 8 November 1955. Encouraged by this success, Shaffer continued to write and established his reputation as a playwright in 1958, with the production ofFive Finger Exercise,[4] which opened in London under the direction ofJohn Gielgud and won the Evening Standard Drama Award. WhenFive Finger Exercise moved to New York City in 1959, it was equally well received and landed Shaffer theNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.
Shaffer's next piece was a double bill,The Private Ear and The Public Eye, two plays each containing three characters and concerning aspects of love. They were presented in May 1962 at theGlobe Theatre, and both starredMaggie Smith andKenneth Williams. Smith won theEvening Standard Theatre Award for Best Leading Actress.[5]
TheNational Theatre was established in 1963, and virtually all of Shaffer's subsequent work was done in its service. His canon contains a mix of philosophical dramas and satirical comedies.The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964) presents the conquest and killing of theInca rulerAtahuallpa by theconquistadorFrancisco Pizarro in Peru, whileBlack Comedy (1965) takes a humorous look at the antics of a group of characters feeling their way around a pitch-black room – although the stage is actually flooded with light.[6]
Equus (1973) won Shaffer the 1975Tony Award for Best Play as well as theNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award. A journey into the mind of a seventeen-year-old stableboy who had plunged a spike into the eyes of six horses,Equus ran for more than 1,000 performances on Broadway. It was revived byMassachusetts'Berkshire Theatre Festival in the summers of 2005 and 2007, by directorThea Sharrock at London'sGielgud Theatre in February 2007, and on Broadway (in the Sharrock staging) in September 2008. The latter production, which ran in New York City until February 2009, required the stableboy to appear naked; its star,Daniel Radcliffe, was still associated with theHarry Potter film series intended for general audiences, and this led to mild controversy.[7]
Shaffer followed this success withAmadeus (1979) which won the Evening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics' Award for the London production. This tells the story ofWolfgang Amadeus Mozart and court composerAntonio Salieri who, overcome with jealousy at hearing the "voice of God" coming from an "obscene child", sets out to destroy his rival. When the show moved to Broadway it won the 1981Tony Award for Best Play and, likeEquus, ran for more than a thousand performances.[8]
After the success ofAmadeus, Shaffer wrote the playLettice and Lovage specifically forDame Maggie Smith in 1986, for which he was nominated for another Tony Award and for which Smith eventually won the Tony Award for best actress after three nominations in 1990.Lettice and Lovage also enabledMargaret Tyzack to win the award for best featured actress, and the production was nominated for best direction of a play, at the1990 Tony Awards.[9]
Several of Shaffer's plays have been adapted to film, includingFive Finger Exercise (1962);The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969);The Public Eye (1962), from which he adapted the 1972 filmFollow Me! (1972);Equus (1977); andAmadeus (1984), which won eightAcademy Awards, includingBest Picture.
For writing the screenplay forEquus, Shaffer was nominated for an Academy Award for his adapted screenplay, but the award went toAlvin Sargent, who wrote the screenplay forJulia. For writing the screenplay forAmadeus, Shaffer was awarded a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award.
Shaffer wasgay. In the 1970s, he was in a relationship withPaul Giovanni, musician and composer ofThe Wicker Man.[10] His later partner, New York-based voice teacher Robert Leonard, died in 1990 at the age of 49.[11][12][13] Peter Shaffer's final relationship was with the drama and music teacher Kevin Shancady.[14][15] Shaffer was given a Memorial Tribute on Broadway in 2017. He lived in Manhattan from the 1970s onward.[2]
While on a trip toIreland shortly after his 90th birthday, Shaffer died on 6 June 2016 at ahospice facility in Curraheen,County Cork.[2][16][17] Leonard and Shaffer are buried together in the east side ofHighgate Cemetery.
Shaffer co-wrote three detective novels with his brother Anthony Shaffer under the pseudonymPeter Antony.[18]
| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 1978 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Equus | Nominated |
| 1985 | Amadeus | Won | ||
| British Academy Film Awards | 1978 | Best Screenplay | Equus | Nominated |
| 1986 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Amadeus | Nominated | |
| Golden Globe Awards | 1985 | Best Screenplay – Motion Picture | Won | |
| Tony Awards | 1967 | Best Play | Black Comedy | Nominated |
| 1975 | Equus | Won | ||
| 1981 | Amadeus | Won | ||
| 1990 | Lettice and Lovage | Nominated | ||
| Laurence Olivier Awards | 1987 | Play of the Year | Nominated |
In 1989 theHamburg-basedAlfred Toepfer Foundation awarded Shaffer its annualShakespeare Prize in recognition of his life's work. In 1993, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) by theUniversity of Bath.[19]
Shaffer's play,Five Finger Exercise won theEvening Standard Drama Award when it premiered in London and then won theNew York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play when it moved to New York City.[20]
Shaffer's play,Equus won theTony Award for Best Play and theNew York Drama Critics' Circle that year as well.[21][22] His screenplay adaptation of the play was nominated for aBest Adapted Screenplay Oscar in1978.[23]
Shaffer's playAmadeus won theEvening Standard Drama Award and the Theatre Critics' Award for its initial London production. Upon moving to Broadway,Amadeus won the1981 Tony Award for Best Play.[24] His screenplay adaptation of the play won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar as well as theGolden Globe for Best Screenplay in 1984.
Shaffer's playLettice and Lovage was nominated for another Tony Award, and for her performance in it, Dame Maggie Smith won theTony Award for Best Leading Actress after three nominations in1990.Lettice and Lovage also wonBest Featured Actress for Margaret Tyzack and was nominated forBest Direction of a Play at the 1990's ceremony .[25]
Shaffer was appointed aCBE in 1987 and namedKnight Bachelor in the 2001 New Year's Honours. In 2007, he was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame.[26]
[Anthony] Shaffer, meanwhile, had been impressed by the work of an American composer, Paul Giovanni, whose experimental folk-rock score for Shakespeare's Twelfth Night he had heard at a performance in Washington DC. More crucially perhaps, the composer was the boyfriend of Shaffer's brother, Peter.
Sir Peter Shaffer, playwright, is 87
