The award-winning British playwright and screenwriter Tom (*88*) has died, in line with his expertise company United Agents. He was 88.
(*88*), who was born in Czechoslovakia, was maybe finest recognized in the US for his Oscar-winning screenplay for the 1998 movie “Shakespeare in Love,” which he co-wrote with Marc Norman.
More not too long ago, he won his fifth Tony Award in 2023 for his play “Leopoldstadt.” He won his first Tony in 1968 for “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” his metatheatrical spin on “Hamlet.”
Norman advised NCS in an e-mail that (*88*) was “a joy to work with.”
“He understood that Shakespeare, that icon, was an entertainer just like we were, and that spirit drove our screenplay,” Norman mentioned. “My thoughts go out to his family.”
In a press release posted to its web site, United Agents mentioned: “We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved consumer and good friend, Tom (*88*), has died peacefully at dwelling in Dorset, surrounded by his household.
“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 assertion continued. “It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him.”
King Charles III, whose mom Queen Elizabeth knighted (*88*) in 1997, mentioned in a press release Saturday that he and Queen Camilla had been “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,” Charles wrote. “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.’”
Born Tomas Straussler in Zlin, in what’s now the Czech Republic, (*88*) was from a secular Jewish household who fled the Nazi invasion of the nation in 1939, first to Singapore, then to Australia and India. Many of (*88*)’s prolonged relations had been murdered in the Holocaust.
After younger Tomas’ father died when the Japanese sank his boat off the Singaporean coast, his mom married an Englishman, Kenneth (*88*), and the household moved to the United Kingdom. Tomas Straussler grew to become Tom (*88*).
(*88*), who briefly labored as a journalist earlier than his success in theatre, had a large oevre. Alongside his many performs, he wrote radio dramas, satirical movies like Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil,” in addition to movie diversifications of books, together with his 2012 screenplay for “Anna Karenina” and his 1987 adaptation of JG Ballard’s roman-a-clef “Empire of the Sun.”
The playwright wrote in a 2024 essay printed by the Huntington Theatre firm that whereas he was born a Czech Jew, his life in Britain and his English stepfather had turned him into an “honorary Englishman.”
“I knew I was – used to be Czech, but I didn’t feel Czech,” (*88*) wrote. “I felt about as English as you could get.”
Later in life, (*88*) started to discover his private historical past via his work. His most up-to-date play, “Leopoldstadt,” traces a Jewish household in Vienna from the Eighteen Nineties via World War II, obliquely referencing his household’s story.
“It’s been at the back of my mind,” (*88*) said of his household historical past in a 2022 interview. “It’s something I’ve never used. It felt like unfinished business.”