Harold Pinter, CH, CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a Nobel Prize-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career 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.
Hackney Downs School, Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Nationality
British
Spouse
Antonia Fraser (m. 1980–2008), Vivien Merchant (m. 1956–1980)
Children
Daniel Brand Pinter
Parents
Frances Pinter, Jack Pinter
Awards
Nobel Prize in Literature, Tony Award for Best Play, Franz Kafka Prize, Virgin Atlantic Best New Play, BAFTA Fellowship, Shakespeare Prize, Society of London Theatre Special Award, BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay, BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay, New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best...
Nominations
Academy Award for Best Writing Adapted Screenplay, Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director, Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay - Motion Picture, Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play, BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Edgar Award for Best Mo...
Movies
The Servant, Sleuth, The Go-Between
Star Sign
Libra
#
Quote
1
I have written about 25 scripts over the years, three of them were never made and another three fucked up. I took my name off one and with some reluctance left my name on another. The one I took my name off was The Remains of the Day (1993), for which they took my script and rewrote it. But the truth is that the roughly 18 films that I've had made have not been touched. They've been filmed exactly as I wrote them. I'm not only talking about dialog but structure as well. I've always been very amenable, to put it mildly, to discussions about structure. It's such a delicate business, the structure of film, isn't it? What happens if a scene is not there but two minutes later? It's an eternal, never-ending search actually, which is very exciting. It really is.
2
But, let's face it, the fact remains that Hollywood has always been an extraordinary bloody place. Always. Hollywood, mainly, is a kind of shithouse. But out of this shithouse, they've produced the most surprising films.
3
I'll tell you something, and this is true: I've never been able to write a film which I didn't respect, I just can't do it. I'm very happy about all the films I haven't done.
4
What concerns me most is shape and structure.
5
The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public; an act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading
as a last resort, all other justifications having failed to justify
themselves - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people.
6
America is at this moment developing advanced systems of "weapons of mass destruction" and is prepared to use them where it sees fit. It has more of them than the rest of the world put together. It has walked away from international agreements on biological and chemical weapons, refusing to allow inspection of its own factories. The hypocrisy behind its public declarations and its own actions is almost a joke. America believes that the 3,000 deaths in New York are the only deaths that count, the only deaths that matter. They are American deaths. Other deaths are unreal, abstract, of no consequence. The 3,000 deaths in Afghanistan are never referred to. The hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children dead through American and British sanctions which have deprived them of essential medicines are never referred to. The effect of depleted uranium, used by America in the Gulf War, is never referred to. Radiation levels in Iraq are appallingly high. Babies are born with no brain, no eyes, no genitals. Where they do have ears, mouths or rectums, all that issues from these orifices is blood.
#
Fact
1
Was a first cousin, twice removed, of actor Dean Collins. Harold's paternal grandparents, Fanny and Nathan Pinter, were also the paternal great-great-grandparents of Dean Collins (Harold's father, Hyman "Jack" Pinter, was the brother of Dean's great-grandmother, Dora Pinter).
2
Appearing in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tapes at the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London [October 2006]
3
He wrote screenplays based on Marcel Proust's "Remembrance Of Things Past" (for Joseph Losey) and Joseph Conrad's "Victory" (for Richard Lester) which were never filmed, but were published. On the other hand, he refused to publish the screenplay of "The Housemaid's Tale" because it was so severely compromised during the filming and he disowned the final film.
4
His play, "The Caretaker," was nominated for a 1976 Joseph Jefferson Award for Play Production at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago, Illinois.
Joined the Donald Wolfit Shakespearean company in 1953.
7
Father was a tailor.
8
Has a father-son relationship with producer Sam Spiegel, according to Spiegel biographer Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni. Spiegel was quite taken with Pinter's genius, so much so it hurt the film adaptation of The Last Tycoon (1976), wrote "Tycoon" director Elia Kazan in his own autobiography, as Spiegel treated the screenplay as sacrosanct and wouldn't let Kazan change it to create more dramatic tension. Ironically, when Spiegel had first seen a screenplay written by Pinter in the 1960s (The Servant (1963), he had been appalled by its lack of professionalism.
9
Awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005.
10
Underwent radiation treatment for cancer of the esophagus in 2002.
11
Supported a motion to impeach British Prime Minister Tony Blair after the Iraq war.
12
Won Broadway's 1967 Tony Award as author of Best Play winner "The Homecoming." He has also received three other Tony nominations: twice as author of a Best Play nominee, in 1962 for "The Caretaker" and in 1972 for "Old Times," and once as Best Director (Dramatic), in 1969 for "The Man in the Glass Booth."
13
In the early 1960s, he had an extra-marital affair with broadcaster Joan Bakewell. Later, Pinter went on to write what became the movie Betrayal (1983), which told the story of their affair.
14
He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1996 (1995 season) for the Special Award for his lifetime achievement to the theatre.
15
He allegedly declined a British Knighthood in 1996.
16
Celebrated by the Manitoba Theatre Centre in a festival named Pinter Fest (January 2003). Several of his works were performed, such as, "Night School" and "The Hot House".
17
He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1966 and a Companion of Honour in the 2002 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Literature and Drama.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Fifty Years on Stage
2013
TV Movie
Pinter's 'The Birthday Party'
2011
Short play
Smísené dvouhry
2011
Video
Arena
TV Series documentary excerpts - 1 episode, 2010 play - 1 episode, 2002
Sleuth
2007
screenplay
Celebration
2007
TV Movie
Working with Pinter
2007
TV Movie documentary
Kolekcja
2006
TV Movie
Fastighetsskötaren
2004
TV Movie play
Victoria Station
2003
Short play
The Dwarfs
2002
TV Movie novel
Bez pogovora
1999
TV Movie play "The Dumb Waiter"
Against the War
1999
TV Movie documentary
The Servant
1997
Short
The Homecomming
1996
TV Series
Performance
TV Series play and teleplay - 1 episode, 1995 play - 1 episode, 1991 screenplay - 1 episode, 1991
The Trial
1993
screenplay
Party Time
1992
TV Short play / screenplay
The Comfort of Strangers
1990
screenplay
The Handmaid's Tale
1990
screenplay
Apeili
1990
Short play
The Heat of the Day
1989
TV Movie
Reunion
1989
writer
Pinter-cyclus
1989
TV Short one-act play
Alte Zeiten
1988
TV Movie
Theatre Night
1987
TV Series writer - 1 episode
Basements
1987
TV Movie plays "The Dumb Waiter" and "The Room" / screenplay
Der Hausmeister
1986
TV Movie play: The Caretakere
Turtle Diary
1985
screenplay
Summer Season
TV Series writer - 1 episode, 1985 play - 1 episode, 1985
A Kind of Alaska
1984
TV Movie play
De huisbewaarder
1984
TV Movie
Le gardien
1984
TV Movie play
Der Hausmeister
1983
TV Movie play: The Caretaker
Yöjalassa
1983
TV Movie play "A Night Out"
Betrayal
1983
writer
Landscape
1983
TV Movie
The French Lieutenant's Woman
1981
screenplay
Velhos Tempos
1979
TV Movie play
Die Geburtstagsfeier
1978
TV Movie play "The Birthday Party"
No Man's Land
1978
TV Movie play
BBC2 Play of the Week
1978
TV Series screenplay - 1 episode
Teatro estudio
1978
TV Series play - 1 episode
Do You Remember?
1978
TV Series script - 1 episode
Niemandsland
1978
TV Movie
Vroeger
1977
TV Movie play
The Lover
1977
TV Movie play
De Dienstlift
1976
TV Movie play
The Last Tycoon
1976
screenplay
Teatro Club
1976
TV Series play - 1 episode
Great Performances
1976
TV Series writer - 1 episode
Provod
1974
TV Movie
Gamle dage
1974
TV Movie play "Old Times"
Ljubavnik
1973
TV Movie play
Rodjendan
1973
TV Movie play
The Homecoming
1973
play / screenplay
Der Hausmeister
1973
TV Movie play "The Caretaker"
But Seriously, It's Sheila Hancock
1973
TV Series 1 episode
Het souterrain
1972
TV Movie
Gemengd dubbel
1971
TV Movie
The Go-Between
1971
screenplay
Schweigen
1971
TV Short novel "Silence"
Viceværten
1971
TV Movie play "The Caretaker"
A szeretö
1970
TV Movie documentary
De dienstlift
1969
TV Movie
Källarvåningen
1969
TV Movie play
NBC Experiment in Television
1969
TV Series writer - 1 episode
De modeshow
1969
TV Movie play
The Birthday Party
1968
play / screenplay
Tiefparterre
1968
TV Movie play "The Basement"
Teatro de siempre
1968
TV Series 1 episode
Teaparty
1968
TV Movie play
Beryl Reid Says Good Evening
1968
TV Series additional material - 2 episodes
Rommet
1968
TV Movie play
O Porteiro
1968
TV Movie play
Die Kollektion
1967
TV Movie play "The Collection"
Theatre 625
TV Series writer - 2 episodes, 1967 radio play - 1 episode, 1967 screenplay - 1 episode, 1967
Accident
1967
screenplay
Het verjaardagsfeest
1966
TV Movie play
The Quiller Memorandum
1966
screenplay
Syntymäpäivät
1966
TV Movie play "The Birthday Party"
ITV Play of the Week
1960-1966
TV Series writer - 2 episodes
Abendkurs
1966
TV Movie play
The Present Stage
1966
TV Series play "The Caretaker" - 2 episodes
Modesty Blaise
1966
screenplay - uncredited
En Kopp te
1965
TV Movie
De minnaar
1965
TV Movie play
Serveringshissen
1965
TV Movie play "The Dumb Waiter"
Seuraava
1965
TV Movie play "The Dumb Waiter"
Tea Party
1965
TV Movie
Primera fila
1965
TV Series play - 1 episode
Teekutsut
1965
TV Movie play "Tea Party"
Camera Three
1965
TV Series plays - 1 episode
Festival
TV Series 1 episode, 1962 play - 1 episode, 1965 play "The Dumb Waiter" - 1 episode, 1961
Elskeren
1964/I
TV Movie novel
Elskeren
1964/II
TV Movie based on play
Rakastaja
1964
TV Movie play "The Lover"
Älskaren
1964
TV Movie
Der Liebhaber
1964
TV Movie play "The Love"
Playdate
TV Series 1 episode, 1964 play - 1 episode, 1964
The Pumpkin Eater
1964
screenplay
Kolleksjonen
1963
TV Movie based on work by
The Servant
1963
screenplay
Kjøkkenheisen
1963
TV Movie based on play
The Guest
1963
play
The Lover
1963
TV Movie
Der stumme Diener
1963
TV Movie play "The Dumb Waiter"
Muotinäytös
1962
TV Movie play "The Collection"
Kollektionen
1962/I
TV Movie play
Kollektionen
1962/II
TV Movie play
Die Kollektion
1962
TV Movie play: The Collection
Der Hausmeister
1962
TV Movie play
Tämä ainoa yö
1961
TV Movie play "A Night Out"
Die Geburtstagsfeier
1961
TV Movie play
A Night Out
1961
TV Movie
ITV Television Playhouse
1960-1961
TV Series writer - 4 episodes
Armchair Theatre
1960
TV Series by - 1 episode
Actor
Title
Year
Status
Character
Sleuth
2007
Man on T.V.
Krapp's Last Tape
2007
TV Movie
Krapp
Arena
2002
TV Series documentary
Nicolas
The Tailor of Panama
2001
Uncle Benny
Wit
2001
TV Movie
Mr. Bearing (Vivian's Father)
Catastrophe
2000
Short
The Director
Mansfield Park
1999
Sir Thomas Bertram
Mojo
1997
Sam Ross
Breaking the Code
1996
TV Movie
John Smith
Theatre Night
1987
TV Series
Nat Goldberg
Turtle Diary
1985
Man in Bookshop
BBC2 Play of the Week
1978
TV Series
Barry Shannon
Rogue Male
1977
TV Movie
Saul Abrahams
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer
1970
Steven Hench
Theatre 625
1967
TV Series
Stott
Accident
1967
Bell - TV Producer
The Wednesday Play
1964
TV Series
Garcin
The Servant
1963
Society Man
The Guest
1963
Man (uncredited)
Armchair Theatre
1960
TV Series
Seeley
Director
Title
Year
Status
Character
Performance
1995
TV Series 1 episode
Party Time
1992
TV Short
The Hothouse
1982
TV Movie
The Rear Column
1980
TV Movie
Butley
1974
Soundtrack
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Servant
1963
lyrics: "All Gone"
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Isabelle
2007
Short grateful acknowledgment
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Newsnight
2007
TV Series
Himself
British Film Forever
2007
TV Mini-Series documentary
Himself
Sunday AM
2007
TV Series
Himself
Charlie Rose
2001-2007
TV Series
Himself - Guest
Working with Pinter
2007
TV Movie documentary
Gomorron
2005
TV Series
Himself - Nobelpristagare / Himself -Nobelpriset
The South Bank Show
1978-2005
TV Series documentary
Himself
The Culture Show
2005
TV Series documentary
Himself
HARDtalk
1999-2004
TV Series
Himself
One Year On: Iraq - A Newsnight Special
2004
TV Movie documentary
Himself
The Truth About 60s TV
2004
TV Movie documentary
Himself
Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film
2003
Video documentary
Himself
Muraren
2002
Documentary
Himself
Changing Stages
2000
TV Series documentary
Interviewee
Against the War
1999
TV Movie documentary
Presenter / Himself
Ritratto di Harold Pinter
1998
TV Short documentary
Himself
La nuit des Molières
1997
TV Series documentary
Himself
Face to Face
1997
TV Series
Himself
Hollywood U.K.
1993
TV Series documentary
Himself - Contributor
Omnibus
1988
TV Series documentary
Himself
Parkinson
1971
TV Series
Himself
NBC Experiment in Television
1969
TV Series
Himself / Various Voices
The 21st Annual Tony Awards
1967
TV Special
Himself - Winner: Best Play
Tempo
1965
TV Series
The More Man Understands
1965
Documentary short
Himself - Commentator
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The Media Show
1990
TV Series
Himself
Étoiles et toiles
1982
TV Series documentary
Arena
2002-2013
TV Series documentary
Himself
Mi reino por un caballo
2011
TV Series
Himself
The 81st Annual Academy Awards
2009
TV Special
Himself - Memorial Tribute
La mandrágora
2009
TV Series
Himself
La nit al dia
2005
TV Series
Himself
God Is African
2003
Himself
Venice Report
1997
TV Short documentary
Sam Ross
Won Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
2005
Nobel Prize in Literature
Nobel Prize
"who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's ... More
1997
Academy Fellowship
BAFTA Awards
1982
David
David di Donatello Awards
Best Foreign Screenplay (Migliore Sceneggiatura Straniera)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
1972
BAFTA Film Award
BAFTA Awards
Best Screenplay
The Go-Between (1971)
1972
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Best British Screenplay
The Go-Between (1971)
1968
Merit Scroll
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Best British Screenplay
Accident (1967)
1965
BAFTA Film Award
BAFTA Awards
Best British Screenplay
The Pumpkin Eater (1964)
1964
NYFCC Award
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
Best Screenplay
The Servant (1963)
1964
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
Best British Dramatic Screenplay
The Servant (1963)
Nominated Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
2008
Evening Standard British Film Award
Evening Standard British Film Awards
Best Screenplay
Sleuth (2007)
1984
Oscar
Academy Awards, USA
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium
Betrayal (1983)
1984
BAFTA Film Award
BAFTA Awards
Best Screenplay - Adapted
Betrayal (1983)
1982
Oscar
Academy Awards, USA
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium