Sir Tom Stoppard | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Stoppard inc. 1985 | |
| Born | Tomáš Sträussler (1937-07-03)3 July 1937 Zlín, Czechoslovakia |
| Died | 29 November 2025(2025-11-29) (aged 88) Dorset, England |
| Occupation |
|
| Citizenship |
|
| Period | 1953–2020 |
| Genre |
|
| Notable awards | Full list |
| Spouses | |
| Partner | Felicity Kendal (1991–1998) |
| Children | 4, includingEd |
| Website | |
| www | |
Sir Tom Stoppard (/ˈstɒpərd/;[1] bornTomáš Sträussler; 3 July 1937 – 29 November 2025) was a British playwright and screenwriter.[2] He wrote for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covered the themes of human rights, censorship, andpolitical freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical bases of society. Stoppard, a playwright of theRoyal National Theatre, was one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation[3] and was critically compared withWilliam Shakespeare andGeorge Bernard Shaw.[4] He wasknighted for his contribution to theatre in 1997 and awarded theOrder of Merit in 2000.
Born inCzechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a Jewish child refugee, fleeing imminentNazi occupation. He spent three years ata boarding school in Darjeeling in theIndian Himalayas, then settled with his family in England after the war, in 1946. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.
Stoppard's most prominent plays includeRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966),Jumpers (1972),Travesties (1974),Night and Day (1978),The Real Thing (1982),Arcadia (1993),The Invention of Love (1997),The Coast of Utopia (2002),Rock 'n' Roll (2006), andLeopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays forBrazil (1985),Empire of the Sun (1987),The Russia House (1990),Billy Bathgate (1991),Shakespeare in Love (1998),Enigma (2001), andAnna Karenina (2012), as well as theBBC/HBO limited seriesParade's End (2013). He directed the filmRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), adapting his own 1966 play as its screenplay, withGary Oldman andTim Roth as the leads.
Stoppard receivednumerous accolades including anAcademy Award for Best Original Screenplay forShakespeare in Love, threeLaurence Olivier Awards, and fiveTony Awards.[5] In 2008,The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture".[6] His final play,Leopoldstadt, set inthe Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna, premiered in 2020 atWyndham's Theatre.[7] It won the2020Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the2023Tony Award for Best Play.[8][9]
Stoppard was born Tomáš Sträussler[10] inZlín,Czechoslovakia (present day Czech Republic). He was the younger son of Martha Becková and Eugen Sträussler,[10] a doctor employed by theBata shoe company. His parents were non-observant Jews.[11] Just before theGerman occupation of Czechoslovakia, the town's patron,Jan Antonín Baťa, transferred his Jewish employees, mostly physicians, to branches of his firm outside Europe.[12][11] On 15 March 1939, the day theNazis invaded Czechoslovakia, the Sträussler family fled toSingapore, where Bata had a factory.[10]
Before theJapanese occupation of Singapore, Stoppard, his brother, and their mother fled toBritish India. Stoppard's father volunteered to remain in Singapore, knowing that as a doctor he would be needed in its defence.[11] Stoppard long believed that his father had perished in Japanese captivity as aprisoner of war,[13][14] but later discovered that his father had been reported drowned after the ship he was aboard was bombed by Japanese forces, as he tried to flee Singapore in 1942.[10][11] In 1941, when Tomáš was five, he, his brother Petr, and their mother were evacuated toDarjeeling, India. The boys attendedMount Hermon School, an American multi-racial school,[13] where the brothers became Tom and Peter.
In 1945, his mother married Kenneth Stoppard, amajor in theBritish Army. Kenneth adopted her children and the family moved toNottingham, England, in 1946.[2] In Nottingham, Stoppard was "warmly welcomed" by his stepfather's family and he later noted that by this point in his life "English was my only language. Suddenly I was an English schoolboy."[15] Stoppard once wrote that his upbringing in England led him to become "an honorary Englishman", and stated that "I fairly often find I'm with people who forget I don't quite belong in the world we're in. I find I put a foot wrong—it could be pronunciation, an arcane bit of English history—and suddenly I'm there naked, as someone with a pass, a press ticket." This is reflected in his characters, he observed, who are "constantly being addressed by the wrong name, with jokes and false trails to do with the confusion of having two names."[15] Stoppard attended the Dolphin School, apreparatory school in Nottinghamshire, and laterPocklington School, aprivate school in theEast Riding of Yorkshire. Pocklington School built the Tom Stoppard Theatre in his name, which he opened in May 2001.[16]
Stoppard left school at 17 and began work as a journalist for theWestern Daily Press in Bristol.[14] Years later, he came to regret the decision to forgo a university education, but at the time, he loved his work as a journalist and was passionate about his career.[14] He worked at the paper from 1954 until 1958, when theBristol Evening World offered Stoppard the position of feature writer, humour columnist, and secondary drama critic, which took him into the world of theatre. At theBristol Old Vic, a well-regarded regionalrepertory company, Stoppard formed friendships with directorJohn Boorman and actorPeter O'Toole early in their careers. In Bristol, he became known more for his strained attempts at humour and unstylish clothes than for his writing.[2]
Stoppard wrote short radio plays in 1953–54 and by 1960 he had completed his first stage play,A Walk on the Water, which was developed and retitledEnter a Free Man (1968).[14] He said the work owed much toRobert Bolt'sFlowering Cherry andArthur Miller'sDeath of a Salesman. Within a week of sendingA Walk on the Water to an agent, Stoppard received his version of the "Hollywood-style telegrams that change struggling young artists' lives". His first play was optioned, staged inHamburg, then broadcast onBritish Independent Television in 1963.[2] From September 1962 until April 1963, Stoppard worked in London as a drama critic forScene magazine, writing reviews and interviews under his own name and the pseudonymWilliam Boot (taken fromEvelyn Waugh's Scoop). In 1964, aFord Foundation grant enabled Stoppard to spend five months writing in a Berlin mansion, emerging with a one-act play titledRosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear, which later evolved into his Tony-winning playRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.[2]
In the following years, Stoppard produced several works for radio, television and the theatre, including"M" is for Moon Among Other Things (1964),A Separate Peace (1966) andIf You're Glad I'll Be Frank (1966). On 11 April 1967 – following acclaim at the 1966Edinburgh Festival – the opening ofRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in aNational Theatre production at theOld Vic made Stoppard an overnight success.Jumpers (1972) places a professor ofmoral philosophy in a murder mystery thriller alongside a slew of radical gymnasts.Travesties (1974) explored the "Wildean" possibilities arising from the fact thatVladimir Lenin,James Joyce, andTristan Tzara had all been inZürich during theFirst World War.[3] Stoppard wrote one novel,Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (1966). Its narrative follows the failing historian Moon, who takes the job ofBoswell to the aristocrat Malquist. While not critically successful, the novel contains character tropes and themes that would later be used in Stoppard's plays.[17]
In the 1980s, in addition to writing his own works, Stoppard translated many plays into English, including works bySławomir Mrożek,Johann Nestroy,Arthur Schnitzler, andVáclav Havel. Stoppard became influenced by the works of Polish and Czech absurdists. He was co-opted into theOutrapo group, a far-from-serious French movement to improve actors' stage technique through science.[18]
In 1982, Stoppard premiered his playThe Real Thing. The story revolves around a male-female relationship and the struggle between the actress and the member of a group fighting to free a Scottish soldier imprisoned for burning a memorial wreath during a protest. The leading roles were originated byRoger Rees andFelicity Kendal. The story examines various constructs of honesty including aplay within a play, to explore the theme of reality versus appearance. It has been described as one of Stoppard's "most popular, enduring and autobiographical plays."[19]
The play made itsBroadway transfer in 1984, directed byMike Nichols, starringJeremy Irons andGlenn Close, withChristine Baranski in a supporting role. The transfer was a critical success withThe New York Times theatre criticFrank Rich declaring, "The Broadway version ofThe Real Thing—a substantial revision of the original London production—is not only Mr. Stoppard's most moving play, but also the most bracing play that anyone has written about love and marriage in years."[20] The production earned sevenTony Award nominations, winning five awards, includingBest Play, as well as awards for Nichols, Irons, Close, and Baranski.[21] This was Stoppard's third Tony Award for Best Play, followingRosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1968 andTravesties in 1976.
In 1985, Stoppard co-wroteBrazil, asatirical science-fiction dark comedy film, withTerry Gilliam andCharles McKeown. The film received near universal acclaim.Pauline Kael, critic forThe New Yorker, declared "Visually, it's an original, bravura piece of moviemaking... Gilliam's vision is an organic thing on the screen—and that's a considerable achievement".[22] Stoppard, Gilliam, and McKeown were nominated for theAcademy Award forBest Original Screenplay, losing toWitness. Stoppard went on to write the scripts forSteven Spielberg's filmsEmpire of the Sun (1987), based on the book byJ. G. Ballard, andIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Spielberg later stated that though Stoppard was uncredited for the latter of the two, "he was responsible for almost every line of dialogue in the film".[23]
For his 1985 appearance on BBC Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs, Stoppard chose "Careless Love" byBessie Smith as his favourite track. He also selectedInferno in two languages byDante Alighieri as his chosen book and a plastic football as his luxury item.[24][25]
.jpg)
In 1993, Stoppard wroteArcadia, a play in which he explores the interaction between two modern academics and the residents of aDerbyshire country house in the early 19th century, including aristocrats, tutors and the fleeting presence, unseen on stage, ofLord Byron. The themes of the play include the philosophical implications of thesecond law of thermodynamics,Romantic literature, and theEnglish picturesque style of garden design.[26]
Arcadia was first performed at theRoyal National Theatre in a production directed byTrevor Nunn and starringRufus Sewell,Felicity Kendal,Bill Nighy,Harriet Walter andEmma Fielding. It won the 1993Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. A year later the play made its transfer onBroadway starringBilly Crudup,Blair Brown,Victor Garber andRobert Sean Leonard. The production was well received withVincent Canby ofThe New York Times writing, that while "There are real difficulties with this production... [there are] also great pleasures, not the least of which are Mark Thompson's sets and costumes. Mostly, though, there are Mr. Stoppard's grandly eclectic obsessions and his singular gifts as a playwright. Attend to them."[27] The production received three nominations at the49th Tony Awards includingBest Play, losing toTerrence McNally'sLove! Valour! Compassion!.
Stoppard wrote the screenplay forShakespeare in Love (1998) withMarc Norman. The film, aromantic comedy, focuses on a fictional story involvingWilliam Shakespeare and his romance with a young woman who is an inspiration for the playRomeo and Juliet. The film starred an ensemble cast includingJoseph Fiennes,Gwyneth Paltrow,Geoffrey Rush,Colin Firth, andJudi Dench. It was a critical and financial success and went on to earn sevenAcademy Awards includingBest Picture. Stoppard received his second career Oscar nomination and first win forBest Original Screenplay. He also received theGolden Globe Award for the screenplay.[28]
The Coast of Utopia (2002) was a trilogy of plays Stoppard wrote about the philosophical arguments among Russian revolutionary figures in the late 19th century. The trilogy comprisesVoyage,Shipwreck, andSalvage. Major figures in the play includeMikhail Bakunin,Ivan Turgenev, andAlexander Herzen.[29] The title comes from a chapter inAvrahm Yarmolinsky's bookRoad to Revolution: A Century of Russian Radicalism (1959). The play premiered in 2002 at theNational Theatre, directed by Trevor Nunn; its total length spanned nine hours. The play received threeLaurence Olivier Award nominations including Best New Play, ultimately losing in all its categories. In 2006, it made its Broadway premiere in a production starringBilly Crudup,Jennifer Ehle, andEthan Hawke. The play received 10 nominations winning seven Tony awards including forBest Play, Stoppard's fourth win in the category.[30]
Rock 'n' Roll (2006) was set inCambridge andPrague. The play explored the culture of 1960srock music, especially the persona ofSyd Barrett and the political challenge of the Czech bandThe Plastic People of the Universe, mirroring the contrast between liberal society in England and the repressive Czech stateafter the Warsaw Pact intervention in thePrague Spring.[31]
Stoppard served on the advisory board of the magazineStandpoint, and was instrumental in its foundation, giving the opening speech at its launch.[32] He was also a patron of theShakespeare Schools Festival, a charity that enables school children across the UK to perform Shakespeare in professional theatres.[33] Stoppard was appointed president of theLondon Library in 2002 and vice-president in 2017 following the election ofSir Tim Rice as president.[34]
ForJoe Wright, Stoppard adaptedLeo Tolstoy'sAnna Karenina into the2012 film adaptation starringKeira Knightley. Film criticLisa Schwarzbaum forEntertainment Weekly praised the film, writing "Stoppard—himself a master of puzzle-like construction in fine plays including Arcadia—supplies an excellently clean, delicately balanced script."[35]
In 2012, Stoppard wrote a five-part limited series for television,Parade's End, which revolves around a love triangle between a conservative English aristocrat, his mean socialite wife and a young suffragette. The series premiered onBBC Two, starringBenedict Cumberbatch andRebecca Hall. The series received widespread acclaim from critics withThe Independent'sGrace Dent proclaiming it "one of the finest things the BBC has ever made".[36]IndieWire declared, "Parade's End is wonderful accomplishment, smart, adult television".[37] Stoppard received aBritish Academy Television Award andPrimetime Emmy Award nomination for the series.[38]
It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-centuryVienna.Leopoldstadt premiered in January 2020 atWyndham's Theatre[7] and went on to win theLaurence Olivier Award for Best New Play.[8][9] It then transferred to Broadway, opening on 2 October 2022.[39] The play was nominated for sixTony Awards and won four, includingBest Play.
Stoppard also co-wrote screenplays includingIndiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) andShakespeare in Love (1998).[23] He also worked onStar Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, though again he received no official or formal credit in thisscript doctor role.[40][41] He worked in a similar capacity withTim Burton on his filmSleepy Hollow.[42]
Among other work, Stoppard'sphilosophicalcomedyradio dramaDarkside (2013) was written forBBC Radio 2 to celebrate the 40th anniversary ofPink Floyd's albumThe Dark Side of the Moon.[43]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966–67) was Stoppard's first major play to gain recognition. The story ofHamlet as told from the viewpoint of two courtiers echoesBeckett in its double act repartee,existential themes and language play.[3] "Stoppardian" became a term describing works using wit and comedy while addressing philosophical concepts.[3] Critic Dennis Kennedy commented:[3]
It established several characteristics of Stoppard'sdramaturgy: his word-playing intellectuality, audacious, paradoxical, and self-conscious theatricality, and preference for reworking pre-existing narratives... Stoppard's plays have been sometimes dismissed as pieces of clever showmanship, lacking in substance, social commitment, or emotional weight. His theatrical surfaces serve to conceal rather than reveal their author's views, and his fondness for towers of paradox spirals away from social comment. This is seen most clearly in his comediesThe Real Inspector Hound (1968) andAfter Magritte (1970), which create their humour through highly formal devices of reframing and juxtaposition.
Stoppard himself went so far as to declare "I must stop compromising my plays with this whiff of social application. They must be entirely untouched by any suspicion of usefulness."[2] He acknowledges that he started off "as a language nerd", primarily enjoying linguistic and ideological playfulness, feeling early in his career that journalism was far better suited for presaging political change, than playwriting.[14]
The accusations of favouring intellectuality over political commitment or commentary were met with a change of tack, as Stoppard produced increasingly socially engaged work.[3] From 1977, he became personally involved with human-rights issues, in particular with the situation of political dissidents in Central and Eastern Europe. In February 1977, he visited theSoviet Union and several Eastern European countries with a member ofAmnesty International.[2] In June, Stoppard metVladimir Bukovsky in London and travelled to Czechoslovakia (then under communist control), where he met dissident playwright and future presidentVáclav Havel, whose writing he greatly admired.[2][14] Stoppard became involved withIndex on Censorship, Amnesty International, and theCommittee Against Psychiatric Abuse and wrote various newspaper articles and letters about human rights. He was instrumental in translating Havel's works into English.Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1977), "a play for actors and orchestra", was based on a request by conductor/composerAndré Previn and was inspired by a meeting with a Russian exile. This play, as well asDogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth (1979),The Coast of Utopia (2002),Rock 'n' Roll (2006), and two works for television –Professional Foul (1977) andSquaring the Circle (1984) – all concern themes of censorship, rights abuses, and state repression.[3]
Stoppard's later works sought greater interpersonal depths, whilst maintaining their intellectual playfulness. Stoppard stated that around 1982 he moved away from the "argumentative" works and more towards plays of the heart, as he became "less shy" about emotional openness. Discussing the later integration of heart and mind in his work, he commented, "I think I was too concerned when I set off, to have a firework go off every few seconds... I think I was always looking for the entertainer in myself and I seem to be able to entertain through manipulating language... [but] it's really about human beings, it's not really about language at all."The Real Thing (1982) uses ameta-theatrical structure to explore the suffering that adultery can produce andThe Invention of Love (1997) also investigates the pain of passion.Arcadia (1993) explores the meeting ofchaos theory,historiography, and landscape gardening.[3] He was inspired by a Trevor Nunn production ofGorky'sSummerfolk to write a trilogy of "human" plays:The Coast of Utopia (Voyage,Shipwreck andSalvage, 2002).[14]
Stoppard commented that he loved the medium of theatre for how "adjustable" and independent from the text it was. His experience of writing for film was similar, offering the liberating opportunity to "play God", in control of creative reality. It often took four to five years from the first idea of a play to staging, as he made efforts to be as accurate in his research as possible.[14]
Stoppard was married three times. His first marriage (1965–1972) was to Josie Ingle, a nurse.[44] His second marriage (1972–92) was toMiriam Stern; they separated when he began a relationship with actressFelicity Kendal.[45][46] He also had a relationship with actressSinéad Cusack, but she made it clear she wished to remain married toJeremy Irons and stay close to their two sons. Also, after she was reunited with ason she had given up for adoption, she wished to spend time with him in Dublin rather than with Stoppard in the house they shared in France.[47] He had two sons from each of his first two marriages: Oliver Stoppard, Barnaby Stoppard, the actorEd Stoppard, and Will Stoppard, who is married to violinistLinzi Stoppard.[46] In 2014 he marriedSabrina Guinness.[48]
Stoppard's mother died in 1996. The family had not talked about their history and neither brother knew what had happened to the family left behind in Czechoslovakia.[49] In the early 1990s, with the fall ofcommunism, Stoppard found out that all four of his grandparents had been Jewish and had died inTerezin,Auschwitz, and other camps, along with three of his mother's sisters.[50]
In 1998, following the deaths of his parents, he returned to Zlín for the first time in more than 50 years.[14] He expressed grief both for a lost father and a missing past, but he had no sense of being a survivor, stating: "I feel incredibly lucky not to have had to survive or die. It's a conspicuous part of what might be termed a charmed life."[15]
Stoppard was a friend of journalist andpopular historianPaul Johnson, and dedicated his 1978 playNight and Day to him.[51]
In 2013, Stoppard askedHermione Lee to write hisbiography.[47] The book was published in 2020.
In 1979, the year ofMargaret Thatcher'selection, Stoppard noted to Paul Delaney: "I'm aconservative with a small c. I am a conservative in politics, literature, education and theatre."[52] In 2007, Stoppard described himself as a "timidlibertarian".[53]
TheTom Stoppard Prize (Czech:Cena Toma Stopparda) was created in 1983 under theCharter 77 Foundation and is awarded to authors of Czech origin.[54]
In 2014, Stoppard publicly backed "Hacked Off" and its campaign towards press self-regulation by "safeguarding the press from political interference while also giving vital protection to the vulnerable".[55]
On 29 November 2025, Stoppard died peacefully at his home inDorset, England, at the age of 88, surrounded by members of his family.[56] Many statements in tribute were made andKing Charles issued a statement
My wife and I are deeply saddened to learn of the death of one of our greatest writers, Sir Tom Stoppard.
A dear friend who wore his genius lightly, he could, and did, turn his pen to any subject, challenging, moving and inspiring his audiences, borne from his own personal history.We send our most heartfelt sympathy to his beloved family. Let us all take comfort in his immortal line: "Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else".[57]
— King Charles III
Stoppard was one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation[3] and was critically compared withWilliam Shakespeare andGeorge Bernard Shaw.[58] After his death,The New Yorker wrote that "he left behind a theatre changed by his blistering intellect and blazing success" and that he was "theatre's primary influence".[59] Writing inThe Guardian, Michael Billington compared him toSamuel Beckett,Michael Frayn, andHarold Pinter with "a capacity to make ideas dance", and described his main achievement as showing "that audiences were open to plays about complex ideas". He also noted Stoppard's emotional and political themes in plays such asArcadia andProfessional Foul.[60]The Wall Street Journal stated that he
may or may not have been the greatest playwright of the past half century or so, but he was undoubtedly the most intellectually daring, historically inquisitive and encyclopedically knowledgeable. If you throw in the rhetorical brilliance, the heart and the boundless wit that coursed through his greatest works, his pre-eminence is hard to challenge. Across his career he collected five Tony Awards for best play (a record) and an Oscar for the screenplay forShakespeare in Love—probably the work that brought him the largest audience.
The theater's importance as a locus of intelligent inquiry and intellectual ferment—not momentous, alas—owes a great debt to his influence.[61]
— Charles Isherwood
In July 2013, Stoppard was awarded thePEN Pinter Prize for "determination to tell things as they are".[62]
In July 2017, Stoppard was elected anHonorary Fellow of theBritish Academy (HonFBA), the United Kingdom'snational academy for the humanities and social sciences.[63] Stoppard was appointedCameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre atSt Catherine's College, Oxford, for the academic year 2017/18.[64]
Stoppard has been represented in various forms of art. He sat for sculptorAlan Thornhill, and a bronze head is now in public collection, situated with the Stoppard papers in the reading room of theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.[65] The terracotta remains in the collection of the artist in London.[66] The correspondence file relating to the Stoppard bust is held in the archive of theHenry Moore Foundation'sHenry Moore Institute inLeeds.[67]
Stoppard also sat for the sculptorAngela Conner, who was a friend, and his bronze portrait bust is on display in the grounds ofChatsworth House[68] in theDerbyshire Dales.
Stoppard's papers are housed at theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin. The archive was first established by Stoppard in 1991 and continues to grow. The collection consists of typescript and handwritten drafts, revision pages, outlines, and notes; production material, including cast lists, set drawings, schedules, and photographs; theatre programmes; posters; advertisements; clippings; page and galley proofs; dust jackets; correspondence; legal documents and financial papers, including passports, contracts, and royalty and account statements; itineraries; appointment books and diary sheets; photographs; sheet music; sound recordings; a scrapbook; artwork; minutes of meetings; and publications.[69]
TheBritish Library published a comprehensive and substantial bibliography for Stoppard in 2010:Tom Stoppard: A Bibliographical History. This also included aCD-ROM containing illustrations.[70][71]
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
