Harold Pinter

Harold Pinter was an English playwright who also worked as a screenwriter, director, and actor, and his writing career lasted more than five decades. Born in Hackney, east London, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama before working in repertory theater in Ireland and England. His first play, The Room, was staged in 1957, and The Birthday Party followed, though its initial run closed quickly; critic Harold Hobson praised it. Pinter became known for plays such as The Homecoming (1964) and Betrayal (1978), and he wrote screenplays including The Servant (1963), Accident (1967), and Sleuth (2007). As an actor, he took roles in film and television productions including Rogue Male (1976), Mansfield Park (1999), The Tailor of Panama (2001), and Wit (2001). In 2005 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and in 2007 he received the French Légion d'honneur. He died in 2008.