Harold Pinter

Born: 1930-10-10

Harold Pinter CH CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works. Pinter was born and raised in Hackney, east London, and educated at Hackney Downs School. He was a sprinter and a keen cricket player, acting in school plays and writing poetry. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the course. He was fined for refusing national service as a conscientious objector. Subsequently, he continued training at the Central School of Speech and Drama and worked in repertory theatre in Ireland and England. In 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant and had a son, Daniel, born in 1958. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980. Pinter's career as a playwright began with a production of The Room in 1957. His second play, The Birthday Party, closed after eight performances, but was enthusiastically reviewed by critic Harold Hobson. His early works were described by critics as "comedy of menace". Later plays such as No Man's Land (1975) and Betrayal (1978) became known as "memory plays". He appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film. He also undertook a number of roles in works by other writers. He directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen. Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes, and other honours, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005 and the French Légion d'honneur in 2007. Despite frail health after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape, for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006. He died from liver cancer on 24 December 2008. Description above from the Wikipedia article Harold Pinter, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia


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Mansfield Park

as Sir Thomas Bertram
Released: 1999-11-12

When spirited young woman, Fanny Price is sent away to live on the great country estate of her...

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The Servant

as People in Restaurant: Society Man
Released: 1963-11-14

Indolent aristocrat Tony employs competent Barrett as his manservant and all seems to be going...

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Accident

as Bell - TV Producer
Released: 1967-02-09

Stephen is a professor at Oxford University who is caught in a rut and feels trapped by his life...

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The Tailor of Panama

as Uncle Benny
Released: 2001-03-30

A British spy is banished to Panama after having an affair with an ambassador's mistress. Once...

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Sleuth

as Man on T.V.
Released: 2007-10-12

On his sprawling country estate, an aging writer matches wits with the struggling actor who has...

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Wit

as Mr. Bearing
Released: 2001-02-09

A renowned professor is forced to reassess her life when she is diagnosed with terminal ovarian...

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Rogue Male

as Saul Abrahams
Released: 1976-09-22

In 1939, Sir Robert Thorndyke takes aim at Adolf Hitler with a high powered rifle, but the shot...

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Harold Pinter: A Celebration

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2010-01-24

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a...

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Breaking the Code

as John Smith
Released: 1996-09-17

A biography of the English mathematician Alan Turing, who was one of the inventors of the...

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Turtle Diary

as Man in Bookshop
Released: 1985-12-06

Two separate people, a man and a woman, find something very stirring about the sea turtles in...

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Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2023-06-02

The extraordinary life of playwright, singer, actor, composer, and director Noël Coward, who...

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The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer

as Steven Hench
Released: 1970-11-12

Fresh-faced young Michael Rimmer worms his way into an opinion poll company and is soon running...

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Mojo

as Sam Ross
Released: 1997-09-02

The sexual rivalries over a new, potentially great rock'n'roll singer between a nightclub owner...

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The Caretaker

as Man
Released: 1964-01-21

Aston, a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a top-floor cluttered room of a small abandoned...

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In Camera

as Garcin
Released: 1964-11-04

A 1964 BBC adaptation of Sartre's "No Exit."

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Michael Redgrave: My Father

as Self
Released: 1997-07-13

Corin Redgrave presents a portrait of his father, Michael Redgrave, exploring his personality,...

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Catastrophe

as The Director
Released: 2001-09-01

An autocratic Director (Harold Pinter) and his Assistant (Rebecca Pidgeon) put the final touches...

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Langrishe, Go Down

as Barry Shannon
Released: 1978-09-20

In the late 1930s, three reclusive middle-aged spinster sisters live on their run down family...

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A Night Out

as Seeley
Released: 1960-04-24

Against the wishes of his domineering mother, Albert Stokes attends a work party. But the...

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The Basement

as Stott
Released: 1967-02-20

An uneasy friendship between an introspective loner and a more gregarious man is renewed when...

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The Birthday Party

as Nat Goldberg
Released: 1987-06-21

It is Stanley's birthday, but the party he is given is not quite what he expects. [A BBC...

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Krapp's Last Tape

as Krapp
Released: 2007-06-20

A 69 year old man sits alone on his last birthday and listens to the past. KRAPPS LAST TAPE is...

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The South Bank Show: The French Lieutenant's Woman

as Self - Interviewee
Released: 1981-01-01

1981 episode of London Weekend Television's The South Bank Show examines the film and features...

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Art, Truth and Politics

as self
Released: 2006-03-01

Nobel Lecture delivered on video by the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature Harold Pinter...

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Poets Against the Bomb

as uncredited
Released: 1981-11-25

An event organised by CND pits the bomb against poetry. Hear artists who hoped that words and...

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Tony Awards

as Self - Nominee
First aired: 1956-04-01

The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award,...

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The South Bank Show

as Self
First aired: 1978-01-14

The South Bank Show is a television arts magazine show that was produced by ITV between 1978 and...

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The Culture Show

as Self
First aired: 2004-11-11

A weekly BBC Two magazine programme focusing on the best of the week's arts and culture news,...

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NBC Experiment in Television

as Self / (voice)
First aired: 1967-02-19

An attempt by NBC to emulate the success of the CBS hit The Twilight Zone, this hour-long...

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