Sir Tom Stoppard, Oscar-Winning Writer of Shakespeare in Love, Dies
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, Sir Tom Stoppard, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Shakespeare in Love and the playwright behind five Tony Award–winning works, has died at the age of 88.
Mick Jagger referred to Stoppard as his favorite playwright on social media, writing: “He leaves us with a magnificent body of artistic and entertaining work. I will always miss him.”
Piers Morgan called Stoppard “one of the greatest playwrights in the world,” adding: “What a writer! Such sad news.”
Stoppard was born on 3 July 1937 to a Jewish family in Czechoslovakia. After fleeing the Nazis, he was educated at a boarding school in the Himalayas, India. Following World War II, he moved to Britain, where he worked as a theatre critic and playwright.
Stoppard began his professional career in the 1950s with short radio plays. His first stage play, A Walk on the Water, premiered in 1960, followed by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
His other plays included The Gamblers, Tango, Jumpers, Travesties, Night & Day, Arcadia, The Invention of Love, and Leopoldstadt.
As a screenwriter, Stoppard also contributed to Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005), Empire of the Sun (1987), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
