Harold Pinter
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Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
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 ''The Homecoming'' is a two-act play written in 1964 and published in 1965 by Harold Pinter. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award ...
'' (1964) and ''
Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Of ...
'' (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 ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' is a 1969 Postmodern literature, postmodern historical fiction novel by John Fowles. The plot explores the fraught relationship of gentleman and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff, the for ...
'' (1981), ''
The Trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...
'' (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 Hackney Downs School was an 11–16 boys, community comprehensive secondary school in Lower Clapton, Greater London, England. It was established in 1876 and closed in 1995. It has been replaced by the Mossbourne Community Academy. History ...
. He was a sprinter and a keen cricket player, acting in school plays and writing
poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
. He attended the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
but did not complete the course. He was fined for refusing
national service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...
as a
conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
. Subsequently, he continued training at the
Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...
and worked in repertory theatre in Ireland and England. In 1956 he married actress
Vivien Merchant Ada Brand Thomson (22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982), known professionally as Vivien Merchant, was an English actress. She began her career in 1942, and became known for dramatic roles on stage and in films. In 1956 she married the playwright Ha ...
and had a son, Daniel, born in 1958. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author
Lady Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to his ...
in 1980. Pinter's career as a playwright began with a production of ''
The Room ''The Room'' is a 2003 American independent romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Tommy Wiseau, who also stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. Set in San Francisco, the film is centered around a ...
'' in 1957. His second play, '' The Birthday Party'', closed after eight performances but was enthusiastically reviewed by critic
Harold Hobson Sir Harold Hobson CBE, (4 August 1904 – 12 March 1992) was an English drama critic and author. Early life and education Hobson was born in Thorpe Hesley, near Rotherham, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He attended Sheffield ...
. His early works were described by critics as "
comedy of menace Comedy of menace is the body of plays written by David Campton, Nigel Dennis, N. F. Simpson, and Harold Pinter. The term was coined by drama critic Irving Wardle, who borrowed it from the subtitle of Campton's play '' The Lunatic View: A Comedy ...
". Later plays such as '' No Man's Land'' (1975) and ''
Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Of ...
'' (1978) became known as "
memory play A memory play is a play in which a lead character narrates the events of the play, which are drawn from the character's memory. The term was coined by playwright Tennessee Williams, describing his work '' The Glass Menagerie''. In his production no ...
s". He appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film, and directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen. Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes and other honours, including the
Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...
in 2005 and the French
Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
in 2007. Despite frail health after being diagnosed with
oesophageal cancer Esophageal cancer (American English) or oesophageal cancer (British English) is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Ot ...
in December 2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role of
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
's one-act monologue ''
Krapp's Last Tape ''Krapp's Last Tape'' is a 1958 one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee (actor), Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". It was inspired by Beckett's e ...
'', for the 50th anniversary season of the
Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...
, in October 2006. He died from
liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...
on 24 December 2008.


Biography


Early life and education

Pinter was born on 10 October 1930, in Hackney, east London, the only child of British Jewish parents of Eastern European descent: his father, Hyman "Jack" Pinter (1902–1997) was a ladies' tailor; his mother, Frances (née Moskowitz; 1904–1992), a housewife.Harold Pinter, as quoted in Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 103. Pinter believed an aunt's erroneous view that the family was
Sephardic Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...
and had fled the
Spanish Inquisition The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition () was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile and lasted until 1834. It began toward the end of ...
; thus, for his early poems, Pinter used the pseudonym ''Pinta'' and at other times used variations such as ''da Pinto''.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 1–5. Later research by
Lady Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to his ...
, Pinter's second wife, revealed the legend to be apocryphal; three of Pinter's grandparents came from Poland and the fourth from
Odesa Odesa, also spelled Odessa, is the third most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine and a major seaport and transport hub located in the south-west of the country, on the northwestern ...
, so the family was Ashkenazic.For some accounts of the significance of Pinter's Jewish background, see Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 2, 40–41, 53–54, 79–81, 163–64, 177, 286, 390, 429.
Cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...
; Woolf, as quoted in Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" 144–45;
Pinter's family home in London is described by his official biographer Michael Billington as "a solid, red-brick, three-storey villa just off the noisy, bustling, traffic-ridden thoroughfare of the
Lower Clapton Clapton is a district of east London, England, in the London Borough of Hackney. Clapton is divided into Upper Clapton, in the north, and Lower Clapton to the south. Clapton railway station lies north-east of Charing Cross. Geography and ori ...
Road".Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 2. In 1940 and 1941, after
the Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...
, Pinter was evacuated from their house in London to
Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
and
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
. Billington states that the "life-and-death intensity of daily experience" before and during the Blitz left Pinter with profound memories "of loneliness, bewilderment, separation and loss: themes that are in all his works." Pinter discovered his social potential as a student at
Hackney Downs School Hackney Downs School was an 11–16 boys, community comprehensive secondary school in Lower Clapton, Greater London, England. It was established in 1876 and closed in 1995. It has been replaced by the Mossbourne Community Academy. History ...
, a London grammar school, between 1944 and 1948. "Partly through the school and partly through the social life of Hackney Boys' Club ... he formed an almost
sacerdotal In Christianity, a minister is a person authorised by a church or other religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance ...
belief in the power of male friendship. The friends he made in those days – most particularly Henry Woolf, Michael (Mick) Goldstein and Morris (Moishe) Wernick – have always been a vital part of the emotional texture of his life." A major influence on Pinter was his inspirational English teacher Joseph Brearley, who directed him in school plays and with whom he took long walks, talking about literature. According to Billington, under Brearley's instruction, "Pinter shone at English, wrote for the school magazine and discovered a gift for acting." In 1947 and 1948, he played
Romeo Romeo Montague () is the male protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy ''Romeo and Juliet''. The son of Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lord Montague, Lord Montague and his wife, Characters in Romeo and Juliet#Lady Montague, Lady Montague, he ...
and
Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...
in productions directed by Brearley. At the age of 12, Pinter began writing poetry, and in spring 1947, his poetry was first published in the ''Hackney Downs School Magazine''. In 1950 his poetry was first published outside the school magazine, in '' Poetry London'', some of it under the pseudonym "Harold Pinta". Pinter was an atheist.


Sport and friendship

Pinter enjoyed running and broke the Hackney Downs School sprinting record.Baker, "Growing Up", chap. 1 of ''Harold Pinter'' 2–23. He was a
cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
enthusiast, taking his bat with him when evacuated during the Blitz. In 1971, he told
Mel Gussow Melvyn Hayes "Mel" Gussow (; December 19, 1933 – April 29, 2005) was an American theater critic, movie critic, and author who wrote for ''The New York Times'' for 35 years. Biography Gussow was born in New York City and grew up in Rockville ...
: "one of my main obsessions in life is the game of cricket—I play and watch and read about it all the time." He was chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club, a supporter of Yorkshire Cricket Club, and devoted a section of his official website to the sport. One wall of his study was dominated by a portrait of himself as a young man playing cricket, which was described by
Sarah Lyall Sarah Lambert Lyall is an American journalist who has long written for ''The New York Times'', currently as a writer at large and including an 18-year period as the paper's London correspondent. Biography Raised in New York City, Lyall attended t ...
, writing in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'': "The painted Mr. Pinter, poised to swing his bat, has a wicked glint in his eye; testosterone all but flies off the canvas." Pinter approved of the "urban and exacting idea of cricket as a bold theatre of aggression." After his death, several of his school contemporaries recalled his achievements in sports, especially cricket and running. The
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...
memorial tribute included an essay on Pinter and cricket. Other interests that Pinter mentioned to interviewers are family, love and sex, drinking, writing, and reading.See, e.g., Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 25–30; Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 7–16; and Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 194. According to Billington, "If the notion of male loyalty, competitive rivalry and fear of betrayal forms a constant thread in Pinter's work from ''The Dwarfs'' onwards, its origins can be found in his teenage Hackney years. Pinter adores women, enjoys flirting with them, and worships their resilience and strength. But, in his early work especially, they are often seen as disruptive influences on some pure and Platonic ideal of male friendship: one of the most crucial of all Pinter's lost Edens."


Early theatrical training and stage experience

Beginning in late 1948, Pinter attended the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
for two terms, but hating the school, missed most of his classes, feigned a nervous breakdown, and dropped out in 1949.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 20–25, 31–35; and Batty, ''About Pinter'' 7. In 1948 he was called up for
National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...
. He was initially refused registration as a
conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
, leading to his twice being prosecuted, and fined, for refusing to accept a medical examination, before his CO registration was ultimately agreed. He had a small part in the Christmas
pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...
'' Dick Whittington and His Cat'' at the Chesterfield Hippodrome in 1949 to 1950.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 37; and Batty, ''About Pinter'' 8. From January to July 1951, he attended the
Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...
.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 31, 36, and 38; and Batty, ''About Pinter'' xiii and 8. From 1951 to 1952, he toured Ireland with the
Anew McMaster Andrew "Anew" McMaster (24 December 1891 – 24 August 1962) was a British stage actor who during his nearly 45 year acting career toured the UK, Ireland, Australia and the United States. For almost 35 years he toured as actor-manager of his o ...
repertory company, playing over a dozen roles.Pinter, "Mac", ''Various Voices'' 36–43. In 1952, he began acting in regional English repertory productions; from 1953 to 1954, he worked for the
Donald Wolfit Sir Donald Wolfit (born Donald Woolfitt; 20 April 1902 – 17 February 1968) was an English actor-manager, known for his touring productions of Shakespeare. He was especially renowned for his portrayal of King Lear. Born to a conventional midd ...
Company, at the King's Theatre,
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...
, performing eight roles.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 20–25, 31, 36, and 37–41. From 1954 until 1959, Pinter acted under the stage name David Baron., In all, Pinter played over 20 roles under that name.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 49–55. To supplement his income from acting, Pinter worked as a waiter, a postman, a bouncer, and a snow-clearer, meanwhile, according to Mark Batty, "harbouring ambitions as a poet and writer." In October 1989 Pinter recalled: "I was in English rep as an actor for about 12 years. My favourite roles were undoubtedly the sinister ones. They're something to get your teeth into." During that period, he also performed occasional roles in his own and others' works for radio, TV, and film, as he continued to do throughout his career.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 20–25, 31, 36, 38.


Marriages and family life

From 1956 until 1980, Pinter was married to
Vivien Merchant Ada Brand Thomson (22 July 1929 – 3 October 1982), known professionally as Vivien Merchant, was an English actress. She began her career in 1942, and became known for dramatic roles on stage and in films. In 1956 she married the playwright Ha ...
, an actress whom he met on tour, perhaps best known for her performance in the 1966 film '' Alfie''. Their son Daniel was born in 1958. Through the early 1970s, Merchant appeared in many of Pinter's works, including ''
The Homecoming ''The Homecoming'' is a two-act play written in 1964 and published in 1965 by Harold Pinter. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award ...
'' on stage (1965) and screen (1973), but the marriage was turbulent. For seven years, from 1962 to 1969, Pinter was engaged in a clandestine affair with BBC-TV presenter and journalist Joan Bakewell, which inspired his 1978 play ''
Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Of ...
'',Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 257–67. and also throughout that period and beyond he had an affair with an American socialite, whom he nicknamed "Cleopatra". This relationship was another secret he kept from both his wife and Bakewell. Initially, ''Betrayal'' was thought to be a response to his later affair with historian
Antonia Fraser Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, (; born 27 August 1932) is a British author of history, novels, biographies and detective fiction. She is the widow of the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Harold Pinter (1930–2008), and prior to h ...
, the wife of Hugh Fraser, and Pinter's "marital crack-up".Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 257. Pinter and Merchant had both met Antonia Fraser in 1969, when all three worked together on a
National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
programme about
Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...
; several years later, on 8–9 January 1975, Pinter and Fraser became romantically involved.Fraser, Chap. 1: "First Night", ''Must You Go?'' 3–19. That meeting initiated their five-year extramarital love affair.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 252–53. After hiding the relationship from Merchant for two and a half months, on 21 March 1975, Pinter finally told her "I've met somebody". After that, "Life in Hanover Terrace gradually became impossible", and Pinter moved out of their house on 28 April 1975, five days after the première of '' No Man's Land''.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 253–55. In mid-August 1977, after Pinter and Fraser had spent two years living in borrowed and rented quarters, they moved into her former family home in
Holland Park Holland Park is an area of Kensington, on the western edge of Central London, that lies within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and largely surrounds its namesake park, Holland Park. Colloquially referred to as 'Millionaire's Row', ...
, where Pinter began writing ''Betrayal''. He reworked it later, while on holiday at the Grand Hotel in
Eastbourne Eastbourne () is a town and seaside resort in East Sussex, on the south coast of England, east of Brighton and south of London. It is also a non-metropolitan district, local government district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, bor ...
, in early January 1978. After the Frasers' divorce had become final in 1977 and the Pinters' in 1980, Pinter married Fraser on 27 November 1980. Because of a two-week delay in Merchant's signing the divorce papers, however, the reception had to precede the actual ceremony, originally scheduled to occur on his 50th birthday. Vivien Merchant died of acute alcoholism in the first week of October 1982, at the age of 53. Billington writes that Pinter "did everything possible to support" her and regretted that he ultimately became estranged from their son, Daniel, after their separation, Pinter's remarriage, and Merchant's death. A reclusive gifted musician and writer, Daniel changed his surname from Pinter to Brand, the maiden name of his maternal grandmother, before Pinter and Fraser became romantically involved; while according to Fraser, his father could not understand it, she says that she could: "Pinter is such a distinctive name that he must have got tired of being asked, 'Any relation? Michael Billington wrote that Pinter saw Daniel's name change as "a largely pragmatic move on Daniel's part designed to keep the press ... at bay."Billington 254–55; cf. 345. Fraser told Billington that Daniel "was very nice to me at a time when it would have been only too easy for him to have turned on me ... simply because he had been the sole focus of his father's love and now manifestly wasn't." Still unreconciled at the time of his father's death, Daniel Brand did not attend Pinter's funeral. Billington observes that "The break-up with Vivien and the new life with Antonia was to have a profound effect on Pinter's personality and his work," though he adds that Fraser herself did not claim to have influence over Pinter or his writing.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 255. In her own contemporaneous diary entry dated 15 January 1993, Fraser described herself more as Pinter's literary midwife. Indeed, she told Billington that "other people uch as Peggy Ashcroft, among others">Peggy_Ashcroft.html" ;"title="uch as Peggy Ashcroft">uch as Peggy Ashcroft, among othershad a shaping influence on [Pinter's] politics" and attributed changes in his writing and political views to a change from "an unhappy, complicated personal life ... to a happy, uncomplicated personal life", so that "a side of Harold which had always been there was somehow released. I think you can see that in his work after '' No Man's Land''
975 Year 975 ( CMLXXV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: Emperor John I raids Mesopotamia and invades Syria, using the Byzantine base at Antioch to pres ...
which was a very bleak play." Pinter was content in his second marriage and enjoyed family life with his six adult stepchildren and 17 step-grandchildren.See Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 388, 429–30. Even after battling cancer for several years, he considered himself "a very lucky man in every respect".
Sarah Lyall Sarah Lambert Lyall is an American journalist who has long written for ''The New York Times'', currently as a writer at large and including an 18-year period as the paper's London correspondent. Biography Raised in New York City, Lyall attended t ...
notes in her 2007 interview with Pinter in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' that his "latest work, a slim pamphlet called 'Six Poems for A.', comprises poems written over 32 years, with "A" of course being Lady Antonia. The first of the poems was written in Paris, where she and Mr. Pinter traveled soon after they met. More than three decades later the two are rarely apart, and Mr. Pinter turns soft, even cozy, when he talks about his wife." In that interview Pinter "acknowledged that his plays—full of infidelity, cruelty, inhumanity, the lot—seem at odds with his domestic contentment. 'How can you write a happy play?' he said. 'Drama is about conflict and degrees of perturbation, disarray. I've never been able to write a happy play, but I've been able to enjoy a happy life. After his death, Fraser told ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'': "He was a great man, and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years. He will never be forgotten."


Civic activities and political activism

In 1948–49, when he was 18, Pinter opposed the politics of the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
, leading to his decision to become a
conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
and to refuse to comply with
National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...
in the British military. However, he told interviewers that, if he had been old enough at the time, he would have fought against the
Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
in
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He seemed to express ambivalence, both indifference and hostility, towards political structures and politicians in his Fall 1966 '' Paris Review'' interview conducted by Lawrence M. Bensky. Yet, he had been an early member of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucl ...
and also had supported the British
Anti-Apartheid Movement The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-white population who were oppressed by the policies ...
(1959–1994), participating in British artists' refusal to permit professional productions of their work in South Africa in 1963 and in subsequent related campaigns.Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 286–305 (chap. 15: "Public Affairs"), 400–03, and 433–41; and Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 171–209 (chap. 8: "Cultural Politics", espec. "Pinter and Politics"). In "A Play and Its Politics", a 1985 interview with Nicholas Hern, Pinter described his earlier plays retrospectively from the perspective of the politics of power and the dynamics of oppression.Merritt, "Pinter and Politics," ''Pinter in Play'' 171–89. In his last 25 years, Pinter increasingly focused his essays, interviews and public appearances directly on political issues. He was an officer in
International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...
, travelling with American playwright
Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
to
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
in 1985 on a mission co-sponsored with a
Helsinki Watch Helsinki Watch was a private American non-governmental organization established by Robert L. Bernstein in 1978, designed to monitor the former Soviet Union's compliance with the 1975 Helsinki Accords. Expanding in size and scope, Helsinki Watc ...
committee to investigate and protest against the torture of imprisoned writers. There he met victims of political oppression and their families. Pinter's experiences in Turkey and his knowledge of the Turkish suppression of the
Kurdish language Kurdish (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern Iranian language or dialect continuum, group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan, namely in southeast Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, Ira ...
inspired his 1988 play '' Mountain Language.''Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 309–10; and Gussow, ''Conversations with Pinter'' 67–68. He was also an active member of the
Cuba Solidarity Campaign Cuba Solidarity Campaign is a British organisation founded in 1962 that campaigns against the US embargo of Cuba, for an end to the US occupation of Cuban land at Guantánamo Bay, and against foreign intervention in Cuba. Activities The Camp ...
, an organisation that "campaigns in the UK against the US blockade of
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
". In 2001, Pinter joined the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milošević (ICDSM), which appealed for a fair trial and for the freedom of
Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Милошевић, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the President of Serbia between 1989 and 1997 and President of the Federal Republic of Yugos ...
, signing a related "Artists' Appeal for Milošević" in 2004. Pinter strongly opposed the 1991
Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...
, the 1999
NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
bombing campaign in
FR Yugoslavia The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...
during the
Kosovo War The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...
, the United States' 2001
War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC), the conquest of Afghanistan by the Macedonian Empire * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan, a series of campaigns in ...
, and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. Among his provocative political statements, Pinter called Prime Minister
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...
a "deluded idiot" and compared the administration of President
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...
to
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
. He stated that the United States "was charging towards world domination while the American public and Britain's ' mass-murdering' prime minister sat back and watched." He was very active in the
antiwar movement An anti-war movement is a social movement in opposition to one or more nations' decision to start or carry on an armed conflict. The term ''anti-war'' can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conf ...
in the United Kingdom, speaking at rallies held by the
Stop the War Coalition The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group that campaigns against the United Kingdom's involvement in military conflicts. It was established on 21 September 2001 to campaign against the impe ...
and frequently criticising American aggression, as when he asked rhetorically, in his acceptance speech for the
Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...
Award for Poetry on 18 March 2007: "What would Wilfred Owen make of the
invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...
? A bandit act, an act of blatant
state terrorism State terrorism is terrorism conducted by a state against its own citizens or another state's citizens. It contrasts with '' state-sponsored terrorism'', in which a violent non-state actor conducts an act of terror under sponsorship of a state. ...
, demonstrating absolute contempt for the conception of
international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...
." Pinter earned a reputation for being pugnacious, enigmatic, taciturn, terse, prickly, explosive and forbidding. Pinter's blunt political statements, and the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature, elicited strong criticism and even, at times, provoked ridicule and personal attacks.See, e.g., ; ; and The historian Geoffrey Alderman, author of the official history of Hackney Downs School, expressed his own "Jewish View" of Harold Pinter: "Whatever his merit as a writer, actor and director, on an ethical plane Harold Pinter seems to me to have been intensely flawed, and his moral compass deeply fractured." David Edgar, writing in ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', defended Pinter against what he termed Pinter's "being berated by the belligerati" like
Johann Hari Johann Eduard Hari (born 21 January 1979) is a British writer and journalist. Until 2011, Hari wrote for ''The Independent'', among other outlets, before resigning after admitting to plagiarism and fabrications dating from 2001 to 2011. Since t ...
, who felt that he did not "deserve" to win the Nobel Prize.See also the comments of
Václav Havel Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. Havel served as the last List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissol ...
and others, excerpted in "A Colossal Figure", which accompanies a reprinting of Pinter's essay , adapted from Pinter's "Acceptance Speech" for the 2005
Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...
Award for Poetry published in Pinter, ''Various Voices'' 267–68.
Later Pinter continued to campaign against the Iraq War and on behalf of other political causes that he supported. Pinter signed the mission statement of Jews for Justice for Palestinians in 2005 and its full-page advertisement, "What Is Israel Doing? A Call by Jews in Britain", published in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' on 6 July 2006, and he was a patron of the Palestine Festival of Literature. In April 2008, Pinter signed the statement "We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary". The statement noted: "We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land.", "We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East"


Career


As actor

Pinter's acting career spanned over 50 years and, although he often played
villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...
s, included a wide range of roles on stage and in radio, film, and television. In addition to roles in radio and television adaptations of his own plays and dramatic sketches, early in his screenwriting career he made several cameo appearances in films based on his own screenplays; for example, as a society man in '' The Servant'' (1963) and as Mr. Bell in ''
Accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not deliberately caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that the event may have been caused by Risk assessment, unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Many researchers, insurers ...
'' (1967), both directed by
Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood ...
; and as a bookshop customer in his later film '' Turtle Diary'' (1985), starring
Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; 19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career ...
,
Glenda Jackson Glenda May Jackson (9 May 1936 – 15 June 2023) was an English actress and politician. Over the course of her distinguished career she received List of awards and nominations received by Glenda Jackson, numerous accolades including two Academy ...
, and
Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received List of awards and nominations received by Ben Kingsley, various accolades throughout Ben Kingsley on screen and stage, his career spanning fi ...
. Pinter's notable film and television roles included the lawyer Saul Abrahams opposite
Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was an English actor known for his leading roles on stage and screen. His numerous accolades include the Academy Honorary Award, a BAFTA Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and four Golde ...
in '' Rogue Male'',
BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...
's 1976 adaptation of
Geoffrey Household Geoffrey Edward West Household (30 November 1900 – 4 October 1988) was a prolific British novelist who specialized in thrillers. He is best known for his novel '' Rogue Male'' (1939). Personal life He was born in Bristol; his father Hora ...
's 1939 novel, and a drunk Irish journalist in '' Langrishe, Go Down'' (starring
Judi Dench Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatility, having appeared in films and television, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage ...
and
Jeremy Irons Jeremy John Irons (; born 19 September 1948) is an English actor. Known for his roles on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards, ...
) distributed on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...
in 1978 and released in movie theatres in 2002. Pinter's later film roles included the criminal Sam Ross in ''Mojo'' (1997), written and directed by
Jez Butterworth Jeremy Butterworth (born March 4, 1969) is a British playwright, screenwriter, and film director. He has gained recognition for his unique voice in contemporary theater, often blending themes of myth, folklore, and realism. He has received a T ...
, based on Butterworth's play of the same name; Sir Thomas Bertram (his most substantial feature-film role) in ''
Mansfield Park ''Mansfield Park'' is the third published novel by the English author Jane Austen, first published in 1814 by Thomas Egerton (publisher), Thomas Egerton. A second edition was published in 1816 by John Murray (publishing house), John Murray, st ...
'' (1998), a character that Pinter described as "a very civilised man ... a man of great sensibility but in fact, he's upholding and sustaining a totally brutal system he slave tradefrom which he derives his money"; and Uncle Benny, opposite
Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He was the fifth actor to play the fictional secret agent Portrayal of James Bond in film, James Bond in the List of James Bond films, James Bond film series, starri ...
and
Geoffrey Rush Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. Known for often playing eccentric roles on both stage and screen, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Geoffrey Rush, numerous accolades, including an Academy Aw ...
, in '' The Tailor of Panama'' (2001). In television films, he played Mr. Bearing, the father of
ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different ...
patient Vivian Bearing, played by
Emma Thompson Dame Emma Thompson (born 15 April 1959) is a British actress and screenwriter. Emma Thompson on screen and stage, Her work spans over four decades of screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Emma Thompson, her accola ...
in
Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theatre director and comedian. He worked across a range of genres and had an aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of ...
's
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
film of the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
-winning play '' Wit'' (2001); and the Director opposite
John Gielgud Sir Arthur John Gielgud ( ; 14 April 1904 – 21 May 2000) was an English actor and theatre director whose career spanned eight decades. With Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier, he was one of the trinity of actors who dominated the Britis ...
(Gielgud's last role) and
Rebecca Pidgeon Rebecca Pidgeon (born October 10, 1965) is an American-British actress who has appeared on stage and in feature films. She is also a singer, songwriter and recording artist. Early life Pidgeon was born to English parents in Cambridge, Massachus ...
in '' Catastrophe'', by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
, directed by
David Mamet David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first ...
as part of ''Beckett on Film'' (2001).


As director

Pinter began to direct more frequently during the 1970s, becoming an associate director of the National Theatre (NT) in 1973. He directed almost 50 productions of his own and others' plays for stage, film, and television, including 10 productions of works by
Simon Gray Simon James Holliday Gray (21 October 1936 – 7 August 2008) was an English playwright and memoirist who also had a career as a Academia, university lecturer in English literature at Queen Mary, University of London, for 20 years. While teach ...
: the stage and/or film premières of '' Butley'' (stage, 1971; film, 1974), '' Otherwise Engaged'' (1975), ''The Rear Column'' (stage, 1978; TV, 1980), ''Close of Play'' (NT, 1979), '' Quartermaine's Terms'' (1981), ''Life Support'' (1997), ''The Late Middle Classes'' (1999), and ''The Old Masters'' (2004). Several of those productions starred
Alan Bates Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the Cinema of the United Kingdom#The 1960s, 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from ''Whistle Down the Wind (film), Whistle Down ...
(1934–2003), who originated the stage and screen roles of not only Butley but also Mick in Pinter's first major commercial success, '' The Caretaker'' (stage, 1960; film, 1964); and in Pinter's double-bill produced at the
Lyric Hammersmith The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a nonprofit theatre on Lyric Square, off King Street, Hammersmith, London."About the Lyric" > "History" ''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved January 2024. Background The Lyric Theatre ...
in 1984, he played Nicolas in '' One for the Road'' and the cab driver in '' Victoria Station''. Among over 35 plays that Pinter directed were ''Next of Kin'' (1974), by John Hopkins; '' Blithe Spirit'' (1976), by
Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...
; '' The Innocents'' (1976), by William Archibald; ''Circe and Bravo'' (1986), by
Donald Freed Donald Freed (born May 13, 1932) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, historian, teacher and activist. According to Freed's friend and colleague, the late Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter, "(Freed) is a writer of blazing imagination, c ...
; '' Taking Sides'' (1995), by
Ronald Harwood Sir Ronald Harwood ( né Horwitz; 9 November 1934 – 8 September 2020) was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for '' The Dresser'' (for ...
; and '' Twelve Angry Men'' (1996), by
Reginald Rose Reginald Rose (December 10, 1920 – April 19, 2002) was an American screenwriter. He wrote about controversial social and political issues. His realistic approach was particularly influential in the anthology programs of the 1950s. Rose w ...
.


As playwright

Pinter was the author of 29 plays and 15 dramatic sketches and the co-author of two works for stage and radio. He was considered to have been one of the most influential modern British dramatists, Along with the 1967
Tony Award for Best Play The Tony Award for Best Play (formally, an Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award given to the best new (non-musical) play on Broadway, as determined by Tony Award voters. There was no award in the Tonys' first year ...
for ''The Homecoming'' and several other American awards and award nominations, he and his plays received many awards in the UK and elsewhere throughout the world. His style has entered the English language as an adjective, " Pinteresque", although Pinter himself disliked the term and found it meaningless.


"Comedies of menace" (1957–1968)

Pinter's first play, ''
The Room ''The Room'' is a 2003 American independent romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by Tommy Wiseau, who also stars in the film alongside Juliette Danielle and Greg Sestero. Set in San Francisco, the film is centered around a ...
'', written and first performed in 1957, was a student production at the
University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
, directed by his good friend, actor Henry Woolf, who also originated the role of Mr. Kidd (which he reprised in 2001 and 2007). After Woolf mentioned that he had an idea for a play, he asked Pinter to write it so that he could direct it to fulfill a requirement for his postgraduate work. Pinter wrote it in three days.Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" 147. The production was described by Billington as "a staggeringly confident debut which attracted the attention of a young producer, Michael Codron, who decided to present Pinter's next play, '' The Birthday Party'', at the
Lyric Hammersmith The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a nonprofit theatre on Lyric Square, off King Street, Hammersmith, London."About the Lyric" > "History" ''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved January 2024. Background The Lyric Theatre ...
, in 1958." Written in 1957 and produced in 1958, Pinter's second play, ''The Birthday Party'', one of his best-known works, was initially both a commercial and critical disaster, despite an enthusiastic review in ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...
'' by its influential drama critic
Harold Hobson Sir Harold Hobson CBE, (4 August 1904 – 12 March 1992) was an English drama critic and author. Early life and education Hobson was born in Thorpe Hesley, near Rotherham, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He attended Sheffield ...
, which appeared only after the production had closed and could not be reprieved. Critical accounts often quote Hobson: Pinter himself and later critics generally credited Hobson as bolstering him and perhaps even rescuing his career. In a review published in 1958, borrowing from the subtitle of ''The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace'', a play by
David Campton David Campton (2 May 1924 – 9 September 2006) was a prolific British dramatist who wrote plays for the stage, radio, and cinema for thirty-five years. Biography Campton was born in Leicester, in 1924. He was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School ...
, critic
Irving Wardle John Irving Wardle (20 July 1929 – 23 February 2023) was an English theatre critic and author. He wrote about theatre for ''The Observer'' from 1959 to 1963, for ''The Times'' from 1963 to 1989, and for ''The Independent on Sunday'' from 1989 ...
called Pinter's early plays "
comedy of menace Comedy of menace is the body of plays written by David Campton, Nigel Dennis, N. F. Simpson, and Harold Pinter. The term was coined by drama critic Irving Wardle, who borrowed it from the subtitle of Campton's play '' The Lunatic View: A Comedy ...
"—a label that people have applied repeatedly to his work.Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 5, 9, 225–26, and 310. Such plays begin with an apparently innocent situation that becomes both threatening and " absurd" as Pinter's characters behave in ways often perceived as inexplicable by his audiences and one another. Pinter acknowledges the influence of
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
, particularly on his early work; they became friends, sending each other drafts of their works in progress for comments.See Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 64, 65, 84, 197, 251 and 354 Pinter wrote '' The Hothouse'' in 1958, which he shelved for over 20 years (See "Overtly political plays and sketches" below). Next he wrote ''
The Dumb Waiter ''The Dumb Waiter'' is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957. Plot Two Hitman, hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper ...
'' (1959), which premièred in Germany and was then produced in a
double bill The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subject reel ...
with ''The Room'' at the Hampstead Theatre Club, in London, in 1960. It was then not produced often until the 1980s, and it has been revived more frequently since 2000, including the West End
Trafalgar Studios Trafalgar Theatre is a West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. The Grade II listed building was built in 1930 with interiors in the Art Deco style as the Whitehall Theatre; it regularly staged ...
production in 2007. The first production of '' The Caretaker'', at the Arts Theatre Club, in London, in 1960, established Pinter's theatrical reputation. The play transferred to the
Duchess Theatre The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 ...
in May 1960 and ran for 444 performances, receiving an
Evening Standard Award The ''Evening Standard'' Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are the oldest theatrical awards ceremony in the United Kingdom. They are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre, and are organised by the ''Evening Standa ...
for best play of 1960. Large radio and television audiences for his one-act play '' A Night Out'', along with the popularity of his revue sketches, propelled him to further critical attention. In 1964, ''The Birthday Party'' was revived both on television (with Pinter himself in the role of Goldberg) and on stage (directed by Pinter at the
Aldwych Theatre The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels. History Origins The theatre was constructed in th ...
) and was well received. By the time Peter Hall's London production of ''The Homecoming'' (1964) reached
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
in 1967, Pinter had become a celebrity playwright, and the play garnered four
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
s, among other awards. During this period, Pinter also wrote the radio play '' A Slight Ache'', first broadcast on the
BBC Third Programme The BBC Third Programme was a national radio station produced and broadcast from 1946 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 3. It first went on the air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces ...
in 1959 and then adapted to the stage and performed at the Arts Theatre Club in 1961. ''A Night Out'' (1960) was broadcast to a large audience on
ABC Weekend TV ABC Television Limited, popularly known as ABC Weekend TV, was a British broadcaster which provided the weekend service in the Midlands and Northern England regions of the Independent Television (ITV) network from 1956 to 1968. It was one of ...
's television show ''
Armchair Theatre ''Armchair Theatre'' is a British television drama anthology series of single plays that ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by ABC Weekend TV. Its successor Thames Television took over from mid-1968. The Ca ...
'', after being transmitted on BBC Radio 3, also in 1960. His play ''
Night School A night school is an adult learning school that holds classes in the evening or at night to accommodate people who work during the day. A community college or university may hold night school classes that admit undergraduates. Italy The scuol ...
'' was first televised in 1960 on
Associated Rediffusion Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British ITV franchise holder for London and parts of the surrounding counties, on weekdays between 22 September 1955 and 29 July 1968. It was the first ITA franchisee to go on air, ...
. '' The Collection'' premièred at the
Aldwych Theatre The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located in Aldwych in the City of Westminster, central London. It was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200 on three levels. History Origins The theatre was constructed in th ...
in 1962, and ''The Dwarfs'', adapted from Pinter's then unpublished novel of the same title, was first broadcast on radio in 1960, then adapted for the stage (also at the Arts Theatre Club) in a double bill with '' The Lover'', which had previously been televised by Associated Rediffusion in 1963; and '' Tea Party'', a play that Pinter developed from his 1963 short story, first broadcast on
BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...
in 1965. Working as both a screenwriter and as a playwright, Pinter composed a script called '' The Compartment'' (1966), for a trilogy of films to be contributed by
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
,
Eugène Ionesco Eugène Ionesco (; ; born Eugen Ionescu, ; 26 November 1909 – 28 March 1994) was a Romanian-French playwright who wrote mostly in French, and was one of the foremost figures of the French avant-garde theatre#Avant-garde, French avant-garde th ...
, and Pinter, of which only Beckett's film, titled ''
Film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
'', was actually produced. Then Pinter turned his unfilmed script into a television play, which was produced as '' The Basement'', both on
BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and d ...
and also on stage in 1968.Baker and Ross, "Chronology" xxiii–xl.


"Memory plays" (1968–1982)

From the late 1960s through the early 1980s, Pinter wrote a series of plays and sketches that explore complex ambiguities, elegiac mysteries, comic vagaries, and other "quicksand-like" characteristics of
memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...
and which critics sometimes classify as Pinter's "
memory play A memory play is a play in which a lead character narrates the events of the play, which are drawn from the character's memory. The term was coined by playwright Tennessee Williams, describing his work '' The Glass Menagerie''. In his production no ...
s".Billington, Introduction, "Pinter: Passion, Poetry, Politics", ''Europe Theatre Prize–X Edition'',
Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, 10–12 March 2006. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
Cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...
Billington, chap. 29: "Memory Man" and "Afterword: Let's Keep Fighting", ''Harold Pinter'' 388–430.
These include ''
Landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
'' (1968), ''
Silence Silence is the absence of ambient hearing, audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low sound intensity, intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be exten ...
'' (1969), ''
Night Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...
'' (1969), '' Old Times'' (1971), '' No Man's Land'' (1975), ''The Proust Screenplay'' (1977), ''
Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Of ...
'' (1978), '' Family Voices'' (1981), '' Victoria Station'' (1982), and '' A Kind of Alaska'' (1982). Some of Pinter's later plays, including ''Party Time'' (1991), ''
Moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. History The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras was aware that "''the sun provides the moon with its ...
'' (1993), '' Ashes to Ashes'' (1996), and '' Celebration'' (2000), draw upon some features of his "memory"
dramaturgy Dramaturgy is the study of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. The role of a dramaturg in the field of modern dramaturgy is to help realize the multifaceted world of the play for a production u ...
in their focus on the past in the present, but they have personal and political resonances and other tonal differences from these earlier memory plays.See Batty, ''About Pinter''; Grimes; and Baker (all ''passim'').


Overtly political plays and sketches (1980–2000)

Following a three-year period of creative drought in the early 1980s after his marriage to Antonia Fraser and the death of Vivien Merchant, Pinter's plays tended to become shorter and more overtly political, serving as critiques of
oppression Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment of, or exercise of power over, a group of individuals, often in the form of governmental authority. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. No universally accepted model ...
,
torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...
, and other abuses of human rights,Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' xi–xv and 170–209; Grimes 19. linked by the apparent "invulnerability of power." Just before this hiatus, in 1979, Pinter re-discovered his manuscript of '' The Hothouse'', which he had written in 1958 but had set aside; he revised it and then directed its first production himself at
Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in South Hampstead, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. History The original ''Hampstead Theatre Clu ...
in London, in 1980. Like his plays of the 1980s, ''The Hothouse'' concerns authoritarianism and the abuses of power politics, but it is also a comedy, like his earlier comedies of menace. Pinter played the major role of Roote in a 1995 revival at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.Merritt, "Pinter Playing Pinter" (''passim''); and Grimes 16, 36–38, 61–71. Pinter's brief dramatic sketch ''Precisely'' (1983) is a duologue between two bureaucrats exploring the absurd power politics of mutual nuclear annihilation and
deterrence Deterrence may refer to: * Deterrence theory, a theory of war, especially regarding nuclear weapons * Deterrence (penology), a theory of justice * Deterrence (psychology) Deterrence in relation to criminal offending is the idea or penology, t ...
. His first overtly political one-act play is '' One for the Road'' (1984). In 1985 Pinter stated that whereas his earlier plays presented metaphors for power and powerlessness, the later ones present literal realities of power and its abuse. Pinter's "political theatre dramatizes the interplay and conflict of the opposing poles of involvement and disengagement." '' Mountain Language'' (1988) is about the Turkish suppression of the
Kurdish language Kurdish (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern Iranian language or dialect continuum, group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan, namely in southeast Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, Ira ...
. The dramatic sketch ''The New World Order'' (1991) provides what Robert Cushman, writing in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' described as "10 nerve-wracking minutes" of two men threatening to torture a third man who is blindfolded, gagged and bound in a chair; Pinter directed the British première at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, where it opened on 9 July 1991, and the production then transferred to Washington, D.C., where it was revived in 1994. Pinter's longer
political satire Political satire is a type of satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics. Political satire can also act as a tool for advancing political arguments in conditions where political speech and dissent are banned. Political satir ...
''Party Time'' (1991) premièred at the
Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre is a 325-seat producing house located on Almeida Street off Upper Street in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre opened in 1980, and produces a diverse range of drama. Successful plays are often transferred to West E ...
in London, in a double-bill with ''Mountain Language''. Pinter adapted it as a screenplay for television in 1992, directing that production, first broadcast in the UK on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
on 17 November 1992.Grimes 101–28 and 139–43; Intertwining political and personal concerns, his next full-length plays, ''
Moonlight Moonlight consists of mostly sunlight (with little earthlight) reflected from the parts of the Moon's surface where the Sun's light strikes. History The ancient Greek philosopher Anaxagoras was aware that "''the sun provides the moon with its ...
'' (1993) and '' Ashes to Ashes'' (1996) are set in domestic households and focus on dying and death; in their personal conversations in ''Ashes to Ashes'', Devlin and Rebecca allude to unspecified atrocities relating to the
Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.Merritt, "Harold Pinter's ''Ashes to Ashes'': Political/Personal Echoes of the Holocaust" (''passim''); Grimes 195–220. After experiencing the deaths of first his mother (1992) and then his father (1997), again merging the personal and the political, Pinter wrote the poems "Death" (1997) and "The Disappeared" (1998). Pinter's last stage play, '' Celebration'' (2000), is a social satire set in an opulent restaurant, which lampoons The Ivy, a fashionable venue in London's West End theatre district, and its patrons who "have just come from performances of either the ballet or the opera. Not that they can remember a darn thing about what they saw, including the titles. hesegilded, foul-mouthed souls are just as myopic when it comes to their own table mates (and for that matter, their food), with conversations that usually connect only on the surface, if there." On its surface the play may appear to have fewer overtly political resonances than some of the plays from the 1980s and 1990s; but its central male characters, brothers named Lambert and Matt, are members of the elite (like the men in charge in ''Party Time''), who describe themselves as "peaceful strategy consultants ecausewe don't carry guns." At the next table, Russell, a banker, describes himself as a "totally disordered personality ... a psychopath", while Lambert "vows to be reincarnated as ' more civilised, gentler person, nicer person'." These characters' deceptively smooth exteriors mask their extreme viciousness. ''Celebration'' evokes familiar Pinteresque political contexts: "The ritzy loudmouths in 'Celebration' ... and the quieter working-class mumblers of 'The Room' ... have everything in common beneath the surface". "Money remains in the service of entrenched power, and the brothers in the play are 'strategy consultants' whose jobs involve force and violence ... It is tempting but inaccurate to equate the comic power inversions of the social behaviour in ''Celebration'' with lasting change in larger political structures", according to Grimes, for whom the play indicates Pinter's pessimism about the possibility of changing the status quo. Yet, as the Waiter's often comically unbelievable reminiscences about his grandfather demonstrate in ''Celebration'', Pinter's final stage plays also extend some expressionistic aspects of his earlier "memory plays", while harking back to his "comedies of menace", as illustrated in the characters and in the Waiter's final speech: During 2000–2001, there were also simultaneous productions of ''
Remembrance of Things Past ''In Search of Lost Time'' (), first translated into English as ''Remembrance of Things Past'', and sometimes referred to in French as ''La Recherche'' (''The Search''), is a novel in seven volumes by French author Marcel Proust. This early twen ...
'', Pinter's stage adaptation of his unpublished ''Proust Screenplay'', written in collaboration with and directed by Di Trevis, at the
Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...
, and a revival of '' The Caretaker'' directed by Patrick Marber and starring
Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; 19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career ...
,
Rupert Graves Rupert Simeon Graves (born 30 June 1963) is an English film, television, and theatre actor. He is known for his roles in '' A Room with a View'', '' Maurice'', '' The Madness of King George'' and '' The Forsyte Saga''. From 2010 to 2017 he sta ...
, and
Douglas Hodge Douglas William Hodge (born 25 February 1960) is an English actor, director and musician. He has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as film and television where he has appeared in ''Robin Hood'' (2010), '' Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Retu ...
, at the
Comedy Theatre The Harold Pinter Theatre, known as the Comedy Theatre until 2011,
. Like ''Celebration'', Pinter's penultimate sketch, ''Press Conference'' (2002), "invokes both torture and the fragile, circumscribed existence of dissent". In its première in the National Theatre's two-part production of ''Sketches'', despite undergoing chemotherapy at the time, Pinter played the ruthless Minister willing to murder little children for the benefit of "The State".


As screenwriter

Pinter composed 27 screenplays and film scripts for cinema and television, many of which were filmed, or adapted as stage plays. His fame as a screenwriter began with his three screenplays written for films directed by
Joseph Losey Joseph Walton Losey III (; January 14, 1909 – June 22, 1984) was an American film and theatre director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Wisconsin, he studied in Germany with Bertolt Brecht and then returned to the United States. Hollywood ...
, leading to their close friendship: '' The Servant'' (1963), based on the novel by Robin Maugham; ''
Accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not deliberately caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that the event may have been caused by Risk assessment, unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Many researchers, insurers ...
'' (1967), adapted from the novel by
Nicholas Mosley Nicholas Mosley, 3rd Baron Ravensdale (25 June 1923 – 28 February 2017), was a British peer, novelist and biographer. Two of his volumes of biography covered the life of his father, Sir Oswald Mosley, the founder of the British Union of Fasc ...
; and '' The Go-Between'' (1971), based on the novel by L. P. Hartley. Films based on Pinter's adaptations of his own stage plays are: '' The Caretaker'' (1963), directed by Clive Donner; '' The Birthday Party'' (1968), directed by
William Friedkin William David Friedkin (; August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in doc ...
; ''
The Homecoming ''The Homecoming'' is a two-act play written in 1964 and published in 1965 by Harold Pinter. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award ...
'' (1973), directed by Peter Hall; and ''
Betrayal Betrayal is the breaking or violation of a presumptive contract, trust, or confidence that produces moral and psychological conflict within a relationship amongst individuals, between organizations or between individuals and organizations. Of ...
'' (1983), directed by David Jones. Pinter also adapted other writers' novels to screenplays, including '' The Pumpkin Eater'' (1964), based on the novel by Penelope Mortimer, directed by
Jack Clayton Jack Isaac Clayton (1 March 1921 – 26 February 1995) was an English film director and producer, known for his skill directing literary adaptations. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for his feature-length debut, Room a ...
; '' The Quiller Memorandum'' (1966), from the 1965 spy novel ''The Berlin Memorandum'', by Elleston Trevor, directed by Michael Anderson; '' The Last Tycoon'' (1976), from the unfinished novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, directed by
Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...
; ''
The French Lieutenant's Woman ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' is a 1969 Postmodern literature, postmodern historical fiction novel by John Fowles. The plot explores the fraught relationship of gentleman and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff, the for ...
'' (1981), from the novel by
John Fowles John Robert Fowles (; 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005) was an English novelist, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work was influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. After leaving Oxford Uni ...
, directed by
Karel Reisz Karel Reisz (21 July 1926 – 25 November 2002) was a Czech-born British filmmaker and film critic, one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in British cinema during the 1950s and 1960s. Two of the best-known films he directed are '' Satur ...
; '' Turtle Diary'' (1985), based on the novel by Russell Hoban; ''The Heat of the Day'' (1988), a television film, from the 1949 novel by
Elizabeth Bowen Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen ( ; 7 June 1899 – 22 February 1973) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer notable for her books about "The Big House in Ireland, the Big House" of Irish Landed gentry, landed ...
; '' The Comfort of Strangers'' (1990), from the novel by
Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, ''The Times'' featured him on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" and ''The Daily Telegraph'' ranked him number 19 in its list of the ...
, directed by
Paul Schrader Paul Joseph Schrader (; born July 22, 1946) is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's ''Taxi Driver'' (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scor ...
; and ''
The Trial ''The Trial'' () is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best-known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and prosecuted by a remote, inaccessible authority, wi ...
'' (1993), from the novel by
Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...
, directed by David Jones. His commissioned screenplays of others' works for the films ''
The Handmaid's Tale ''The Handmaid's Tale'' is a futuristic dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state known as the Republic of Gilead, which has ...
'' (1990), '' The Remains of the Day'' (1990), and ''
Lolita ''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...
'' (1997), remain unpublished and in the case of the latter two films, uncredited, though several scenes from or aspects of his scripts were used in these finished films. His screenplays '' The Proust Screenplay'' (1972), ''Victory'' (1982), and '' The Dreaming Child'' (1997) and his unpublished screenplay '' The Tragedy of King Lear'' (2000) have not been filmed. A section of Pinter's ''Proust Screenplay'' was, however, released as the 1984 film '' Swann in Love'' (''Un amour de Swann''), directed by
Volker Schlöndorff Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s. He ha ...
, and it was also adapted by Michael Bakewell as a two-hour radio drama broadcast on
BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
in 1995, before Pinter and director Di Trevis collaborated to adapt it for the 2000 National Theatre production. Pinter's last filmed screenplay was an adaptation of the 1970
Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...
-winning play '' Sleuth'', by Anthony Shaffer, which was commissioned by
Jude Law David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972) is an English actor. He began his career in theatre before landing small roles in various British television productions and feature films. Law gained international recognition for his role in An ...
, one of the film's producers. It is the basis for the 2007 film '' Sleuth'', directed by
Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( ; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. List of award ...
. Pinter's screenplays for ''
The French Lieutenant's Woman ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'' is a 1969 Postmodern literature, postmodern historical fiction novel by John Fowles. The plot explores the fraught relationship of gentleman and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff, the for ...
'' and ''Betrayal'' were nominated for
Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
s in 1981 and 1983, respectively.


2001–2008

From 16 to 31 July 2001, a Harold Pinter Festival celebrating his work, curated by Michael Colgan, artistic director of the
Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochla ...
, Dublin, was held as part of the annual Lincoln Center Festival at
Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5  ...
in New York City. Pinter participated both as an actor, as Nicolas in ''One for the Road'', and as a director of a double bill pairing his last play, ''Celebration'', with his first play, ''The Room''.Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" (''passim''). As part of a two-week "Harold Pinter Homage" at the World Leaders Festival of Creative Genius, held from 24 September to 30 October 2001, at the Harbourfront Centre, in Toronto, Canada, Pinter presented a dramatic reading of ''Celebration'' (2000) and also participated in a public interview as part of the
International Festival of Authors The Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), previously known as the International Festival of Authors (IFOA), is an annual festival presented in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. History Since 1974, the mission of TIFA programming has be ...
. In December 2001, Pinter was diagnosed with
oesophageal cancer Esophageal cancer (American English) or oesophageal cancer (British English) is cancer arising from the esophagus—the food pipe that runs between the throat and the stomach. Symptoms often include difficulty in swallowing and weight loss. Ot ...
, for which, in 2002, he underwent an operation and
chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...
.; Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 413–16. During the course of his treatment, he directed a production of his play ''No Man's Land'', and wrote and performed in a new sketch, "Press Conference", for a production of his dramatic sketches at the National Theatre, and from 2002 on he was increasingly active in political causes, writing and presenting politically charged poetry, essays, speeches, as well as involved in developing his final two screenplay adaptations, ''The Tragedy of King Lear'' and ''Sleuth'', whose drafts are in the British Library's Harold Pinter Archive (Add MS 88880/2). From 9 to 25 January 2003, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, in
Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...
, Canada, held a nearly month-long ''PinterFest'', in which over 130 performances of twelve of Pinter's plays were performed by a dozen different theatre companies. Productions during the Festival included: ''The Hothouse'', ''Night School'', ''The Lover'', ''The Dumb Waiter'', ''The Homecoming'', ''The Birthday Party'', ''Monologue'', ''One for the Road'', ''The Caretaker'', ''Ashes to Ashes'', ''Celebration'', and ''No Man's Land''.Merritt, "PinterFest", in "Forthcoming Publications, Upcoming Productions, and Other Works in Progress", "Harold Pinter Bibliography: 2000–2002" (299). In 2005, Pinter stated that he had stopped writing plays and that he would be devoting his efforts more to his political activism and writing poetry: "I think I've written 29 plays. I think it's enough for me ... My energies are going in different directions—over the last few years I've made a number of political speeches at various locations and ceremonies ... I'm using a lot of energy more specifically about political states of affairs, which I think are very, very worrying as things stand." Some of this later poetry included "The 'Special Relationship'", "Laughter", and "The Watcher". From 2005, Pinter experienced ill health, including a rare skin disease called
pemphigus Pemphigus ( or ) is a rare group of blistering autoimmune diseases that affect the skin and mucous membranes. The name is derived from the Greek root ''pemphix'', meaning "blister". In pemphigus, autoantibody, autoantibodies form against de ...
and "a form of
septicaemia Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage of sepsis is followed by suppression of the immune system. Common signs and s ...
that afflict dhis feet and made it difficult for him to walk." Yet, he completed his screenplay for the film of ''Sleuth'' in 2005. His last dramatic work for radio, ''Voices'' (2005), a collaboration with composer James Clarke, adapting selected works by Pinter to music, premièred on
BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
on his 75th birthday on 10 October 2005. Three days later, it was announced that he had won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. In an interview with Pinter in 2006, conducted by critic Michael Billington as part of the cultural programme of the
2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...
in
Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, Italy, Pinter confirmed that he would continue to write poetry but not plays. In response, the audience shouted ''No'' in unison, urging him to keep writing. Along with the international symposium on Pinter: Passion, Poetry, Politics, curated by Billington, the 2006
Europe Theatre Prize The Europe Theatre Prize ''(Premio Europa per il Teatro)'' is an award of the European Commission for a personality who has "contributed to the realisation of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peo ...
theatrical events celebrating Pinter included new productions (in French) of ''Precisely'' (1983), ''One for the Road'' (1984), ''Mountain Language'' (1988), ''The New World Order'' (1991), ''Party Time'' (1991), and ''Press Conference'' (2002) (French versions by Jean Pavans); and ''Pinter Plays, Poetry & Prose'', an evening of dramatic readings, directed by Alan Stanford, of the
Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochla ...
, Dublin. In June 2006, the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
(BAFTA) hosted a celebration of Pinter's films curated by his friend, the playwright David Hare. Hare introduced the selection of film clips by saying: "To jump back into the world of Pinter's movies ... is to remind yourself of a literate mainstream cinema, focused as much as Bergman's is on the human face, in which tension is maintained by a carefully crafted mix of image and dialogue."Billington, ''Harold Pinter'' 429. After returning to London from the
Edinburgh International Book Festival The Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) is a book festival that takes place during two weeks in August every year in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. Described as ''The largest festival of its kind in the world'', the festival hosts ...
, in September 2006, Pinter began rehearsing for his performance of the role of Krapp in
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
's one-act
monologue In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts ...
''
Krapp's Last Tape ''Krapp's Last Tape'' is a 1958 one-act play, in English, by Samuel Beckett. With a cast of one man, it was written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee (actor), Patrick Magee and first titled "Magee monologue". It was inspired by Beckett's e ...
'', which he performed from a motorised wheelchair in a limited run the following month at the
Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...
to sold-out audiences and "ecstatic" critical reviews. The production ran for only nine performances, as part of the 50th-anniversary celebration season of the
Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...
; it sold out within minutes of the opening of the box office and tickets commanded large sums from ticket resellers. One performance was filmed and broadcast on
BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002
on 21 June 2007, and also screened later, as part of the memorial PEN Tribute to Pinter, in New York, on 2 May 2009. In October and November 2006,
Sheffield Theatres Sheffield Theatres is a theatre complex in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It comprises four theatres: the Crucible, the Lyceum, the Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, and (as of January 2025) the Montgomery Theatre. These theatres make up ...
hosted Pinter: A Celebration. It featured productions of seven of Pinter's plays: ''The Caretaker'', ''Voices'', ''No Man's Land'', ''Family Voices'', ''Tea Party'', ''The Room'', ''One for the Road'', and ''The Dumb Waiter''; and films (most his screenplays; some in which Pinter appears as an actor). In February and March 2007, a 50th anniversary of ''The Dumb Waiter'', was produced at the
Trafalgar Studios Trafalgar Theatre is a West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. The Grade II listed building was built in 1930 with interiors in the Art Deco style as the Whitehall Theatre; it regularly staged ...
. Later in February 2007, John Crowley's film version of Pinter's play ''Celebration'' (2000) was shown on ''
More4 More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas. Content The i ...
'' (
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
, UK). On 18 March 2007,
BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...
broadcast a new radio production of ''The Homecoming'', directed by Thea Sharrock and produced by Martin J. Smith, with Pinter performing the role of Max (for the first time; he had previously played Lenny on stage in 1964). A revival of ''The Hothouse'' opened at the National Theatre, in London, in July 2007, concurrently with a revival of ''Betrayal'' at the
Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit Off-West End theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage, Josie Rourke and Michael Longhurst have all served as artistic direc ...
, directed by
Roger Michell Roger Harry Michell (5 June 1956 – 22 September 2021) was a British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as ''Notting Hill'' and ''Venus'', as well as the 1995 made-for-television film ''Persuasi ...
. Revivals in 2008 included the 40th-anniversary production of the American première of ''The Homecoming'' on Broadway, directed by Daniel J. Sullivan. From 8 to 24 May 2008, the
Lyric Hammersmith The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a nonprofit theatre on Lyric Square, off King Street, Hammersmith, London."About the Lyric" > "History" ''Lyric'' official website. Retrieved January 2024. Background The Lyric Theatre ...
celebrated the 50th anniversary of ''The Birthday Party'' with a revival and related events, including a gala performance and reception hosted by Harold Pinter on 19 May 2008, exactly 50 years after its London première there. The final revival during Pinter's lifetime was a production of ''No Man's Land'', directed by
Rupert Goold Rupert Goold (born 18 February 1972) is an English director who works primarily in theatre. He is the artistic director of the Almeida Theatre, and was the artistic director of Headlong Theatre Company (2005–2013). Since 2010, Goold has be ...
, opening at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in August 2008, and then transferring to the
Duke of York's Theatre The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster, London. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre until her death in 1935. Designed by ...
, London, where it played until 3 January 2009. On the Monday before Christmas 2008, Pinter was admitted to
Hammersmith Hospital Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, London, White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the ...
, where he died on Christmas Eve from liver cancer, aged 78. On 26 December 2008, when ''No Man's Land'' reopened at the Duke of York's, the actors paid tribute to Pinter from the stage, with Michael Gambon reading Hirst's monologue about his "photograph album" from Act Two that Pinter had asked him to read at his funeral, ending with a standing ovation from the audience, many of whom were in tears:


Posthumous events


Funeral

Pinter's funeral was a private, half-hour secular ceremony conducted at the graveside at
Kensal Green Cemetery Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in the Kensal Green area of North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, England. Inspired by Père Lachaise Cemetery in P ...
, 31 December 2008. The eight readings selected in advance by Pinter included passages from seven of his own writings and from the story " The Dead", by
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
, which was read by actress
Penelope Wilton Dame Penelope Alice Wilton (born 3 June 1946) is an English actress. She was formerly married to fellow actor Sir Ian Holm and, as she has not remarried, retains her married style of Lady Holm. Wilton is known for starring opposite Richard ...
.
Michael Gambon Sir Michael John Gambon (; 19 October 1940 – 27 September 2023) was an Irish-English actor. Gambon started his acting career with Laurence Olivier as one of the original members of the Royal National Theatre. Over his six-decade-long career ...
read the "photo album" speech from ''No Man's Land'' and three other readings, including Pinter's poem "Death" (1997). Other readings honoured Pinter's widow and his love of cricket. The ceremony was attended by many notable theatre people, including
Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
, but not by Pinter's son, Daniel Brand. At its end, Pinter's widow, Antonia Fraser, stepped forward to his grave and quoted from Horatio's speech after the death of
Hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
: "Goodnight, sweet prince, / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."


Memorial tributes

The night before Pinter's burial, theatre marquees on Broadway dimmed their lights for a minute in tribute, and on the final night of ''No Man's Land'' at the Duke of York's Theatre on 3 January 2009, all of the
Ambassador Theatre Group ATG Entertainment, formerly The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), is a major international live entertainment organisation headquartered in the United Kingdom, with offices in Woking (head office), London, New York, Sydney, Mannheim and Cologne. ...
in the West End dimmed their lights for an hour to honour the playwright.
Diane Abbott Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who has been serving as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987 Unit ...
, the Member of Parliament for Hackney North & Stoke Newington proposed an
early day motion In the Westminster parliamentary system, an early day motion (EDM) is a motion, expressed as a single sentence, tabled by a member of Parliament, which the Government (in charge of parliamentary business) has not yet scheduled for debate. Hi ...
in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
to support a residents' campaign to restore the Clapton Cinematograph Theatre, established in Lower Clapton Road in 1910, and to turn it into a memorial to Pinter "to honour this Hackney boy turned literary great." On 2 May 2009, a free public memorial tribute was held at The Graduate Center of The
City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
. It was part of the 5th Annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, taking place in New York City. Another memorial celebration, held in the Olivier Theatre, at the
Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...
, in London, on the evening of 7 June 2009, consisted of excerpts and readings from Pinter's writings by nearly three dozen actors, many of whom were his friends and associates, including:
Eileen Atkins Dame Eileen June Atkins (born 15 June 1934) is an English actress. She has worked in the theatre, film, and television consistently since 1953. In 2008, she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress and the Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting ...
, David Bradley,
Colin Firth Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Colin Firth, several accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Aw ...
,
Henry Goodman Henry Goodman (born 23 April 1950) is a RADA trained British actor. He has appeared on television and radio, in film and in the theatre. Early life He attended the Central Foundation Boys' School and joined the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Lo ...
,
Sheila Hancock Dame Sheila Cameron Hancock (born 22 February 1933) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has performed on stage in both plays and musicals in London theatres, and is also known for her roles in films and on television. Her Broadway ...
,
Alan Rickman Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his distinctive deep, wikt:languid#Etymology 1, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and b ...
,
Penelope Wilton Dame Penelope Alice Wilton (born 3 June 1946) is an English actress. She was formerly married to fellow actor Sir Ian Holm and, as she has not remarried, retains her married style of Lady Holm. Wilton is known for starring opposite Richard ...
, Susan Wooldridge, and Henry Woolf; and a troupe of students from the
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. In ...
, directed by Ian Rickson. On 16 June 2009, Antonia Fraser officially opened a commemorative room at the
Hackney Empire Hackney Empire is a theatre on Mare Street, in Hackney in the London Borough of Hackney. Originally designed by Frank Matcham it was built in 1901 as a music hall, and expanded in 2001. Described by ''The Guardian'' as "the most beautiful theat ...
. The theatre also established a writer's residency in Pinter's name. Most of issue number 28 of
Craig Raine Craig Anthony Raine, FRSL (born 3 December 1944) is an English contemporary poet. Along with Christopher Reid, he is a pioneer of Martian poetry, a movement that expresses alienation with the world, society and objects. He was a fellow of New C ...
's Arts Tri-Quarterly '' Areté'' was devoted to pieces remembering Pinter, beginning with Pinter's 1987 unpublished love poem dedicated "To Antonia" and his poem "Paris", written in 1975 (the year in which he and Fraser began living together), followed by brief memoirs by some of Pinter's associates and friends, including Patrick Marber,
Nina Raine Nina Raine is an English theatre director and playwright, the only daughter of Craig Raine and Ann Pasternak Slater, and a grand niece of the Russian novelist Boris Pasternak. She graduated from Christ Church, Oxford in 1998 with a First in E ...
,
Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
, Peter Nichols, Susanna Gross,
Richard Eyre Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Eyre has received numerous accolades including three Laurence Olivier Awards as well as nominations for six BAFTA Awards and two ...
, and David Hare. A memorial cricket match at
Lord's Cricket Ground Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...
between the Gaieties Cricket Club and the Lord's Taverners, followed by performances of Pinter's poems and excerpts from his plays, took place on 27 September 2009. In 2009, English PEN established the PEN/Pinter Prize, PEN Pinter Prize, which is awarded annually to a British writer or a writer resident in Britain who, in the words of Pinter's Nobel speech, casts an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world, and shows a 'fierce intellectual determination ... to define the real truth of our lives and our societies'. The prize is shared with an international writer of courage. The inaugural winners of the prize were Tony Harrison and the Burmese poet and comedian Zarganar, Maung Thura (a.k.a. Zarganar).


''Being Harold Pinter''

In January 2011 ''Being Harold Pinter'', a theatrical collage of excerpts from Pinter's dramatic works, his Nobel Lecture, and letters of Belarusian prisoners, created and performed by the Belarus Free Theatre, evoked a great deal of attention in the public media. The Free Theatre's members had to be smuggled out of Minsk, owing to a government crackdown on dissident artists, to perform their production in a two-week sold-out engagement at La MaMa in New York as part of the 2011 Under the Radar Festival. In an additional sold-out benefit performance at the Public Theater, co-hosted by playwrights Tony Kushner and
Tom Stoppard Sir Tom Stoppard (; born , 3 July 1937) is a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and politi ...
, the prisoner's letters were read by ten guest performers: Mandy Patinkin, Kevin Kline, Olympia Dukakis, Lily Rabe, Linda Emond, Josh Hamilton (actor), Josh Hamilton, Stephen Spinella, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. In solidarity with the Belarus Free Theatre, collaborations of actors and theatre companies joined in offering additional benefit readings of ''Being Harold Pinter'' across the United States.


The Harold Pinter Theatre, London

In September 2011, British Theatre owners,
Ambassador Theatre Group ATG Entertainment, formerly The Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), is a major international live entertainment organisation headquartered in the United Kingdom, with offices in Woking (head office), London, New York, Sydney, Mannheim and Cologne. ...
(ATG) announced it was renaming its ''Comedy Theatre'', Panton Street, London to become ''The Harold Pinter Theatre''. Howard Panter, Joint CEO and Creative Director of ATG told the BBC, "The work of Pinter has become an integral part of the history of the Comedy Theatre. The re-naming of one of our most successful West End theatres is a fitting tribute to a man who made such a mark on British theatre who, over his 50 year career, became recognised as one of the most influential modern British dramatists."


Honours

An Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and an Honorary Fellow of the Modern Language Association, Modern Language Association of America (1970), Pinter was appointed Order of the British Empire, CBE in 1966 and became a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour in 2002, having declined a knighthood in 1996. In 1995, he accepted the David Cohen Prize, in recognition of a lifetime of literary achievement. In 1996, he received a Laurence Olivier Awards, Laurence Olivier Special Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre. In 1997 he became a British Academy of Film and Television Arts, BAFTA Fellow. He received the World Leaders Award for "Creative Genius" as the subject of a week-long "Homage" in Toronto, in October 2001. In 2004, he received the
Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen Military Cross, MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of Trench warfare, trenches and Chemi ...
Award for Poetry for his "lifelong contribution to literature, 'and specifically for his collection of poetry entitled ''War'', published in 2003'". In March 2006, he was awarded the
Europe Theatre Prize The Europe Theatre Prize ''(Premio Europa per il Teatro)'' is an award of the European Commission for a personality who has "contributed to the realisation of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peo ...
in recognition of lifetime achievements pertaining to drama and theatre. In conjunction with that award, the critic Michael Billington coordinated an international conference on Pinter: Passion, Poetry, Politics, including scholars and critics from Europe and the Americas, held in
Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
, Italy, from 10 to 14 March 2006. In October 2008, the
Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...
announced that Pinter had agreed to become its president and awarded him an Honorary title (academic), honorary fellowship at its graduation ceremony. On his appointment, Pinter commented: "I was a student at Central in 1950–51. I enjoyed my time there very much and I am delighted to become president of a remarkable institution." But he had to receive that honorary degree, his 20th, in absentia owing to ill health. His presidency of the school was brief; he died just two weeks after the graduation ceremony, on 24 December 2008. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the Sretenje Order of Serbia.


Nobel Prize in Literature


Légion d'honneur

On 18 January 2007, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin presented Pinter with France's highest civil honour, the
Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...
, at a ceremony at the French embassy in London. De Villepin praised Pinter's poem "American Football" (1991) stating: "With its violence and its cruelty, it is for me one of the most accurate images of war, one of the most telling metaphors of the temptation of imperialism and violence." In response, Pinter praised France's opposition to the war in Iraq. M. de Villepin concluded: "The poet stands still and observes what doesn't deserve other men's attention. Poetry teaches us how to live and you, Harold Pinter, teach us how to live." He said that Pinter received the award particularly "because in seeking to capture all the facets of the human spirit, [Pinter's] works respond to the aspirations of the French public, and its taste for an understanding of man and of what is truly universal". Lawrence Pollard observed that "the award for the great playwright underlines how much Mr Pinter is admired in countries like France as a model of the uncompromising radical intellectual".


Scholarly response

Some scholars and critics challenge the validity of Pinter's critiques of what he terms "the modes of thinking of those in power" or dissent from his retrospective viewpoints on his own work. In 1985, Pinter recalled that his early act of conscientious objection resulted from being "terribly disturbed as a young man by the Cold War. And McCarthyism ... A profound hypocrisy. 'They' the monsters, 'we' the good. In 1948, the Russian suppression of Eastern Europe was an obvious and brutal fact, but I felt very strongly then and feel as strongly now that we have an obligation to subject our own actions and attitudes to an equivalent critical and moral scrutiny." Scholars agree that Pinter's dramatic rendering of power relations results from this scrutiny.
Cf. The abbreviation cf. (short for either Latin or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contr ...
, e.g., Batty, "Preface" (xvii–xix) and chap. 6–9 (55–221) in ''About Pinter''; Grimes 19, 36–71, 218–20, and ''passim''.
Pinter's aversion to any censorship by "the authorities" is epitomised in Petey's line at the end of ''The Birthday Party''. As the broken-down and reconstituted Stanley is being carted off by the figures of authority Goldberg and McCann, Petey calls after him, "Stan, don't let them tell you what to do!" Pinter told Gussow in 1988, "I've lived that line all my damn life. Never more than now."Quoted in Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 179. The example of Pinter's stalwart opposition to what he termed "the modes of thinking of those in power"—the "brick wall" of the "minds" perpetuating the "status quo"—infused the "vast political pessimism" that some academic critics may perceive in his artistic work, its "drowning landscape" of harsh contemporary realities, with some residual "hope for restoring the dignity of man." As Pinter's long-time friend David Jones reminded analytically inclined scholars and dramatic critics, Pinter was one of the "great comic writers": His dramatic conflicts present serious implications for his characters and his audiences, leading to sustained inquiry about "the point" of his work and multiple "critical strategies" for developing interpretations and stylistic analyses of it.


Pinter research collections

Pinter's unpublished manuscripts and letters to and from him are held in the Harold Pinter Archive in the Modern Literary Manuscripts division of the British Library. Smaller collections of Pinter manuscripts are in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, the University of Texas at Austin; Indiana University (Bloomington), The Lilly Library, Indiana University (Bloomington), Indiana University at Bloomington; the Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, at the University of California, San Diego; the British Film Institute, in London; and the Margaret Herrick Library, Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, California.


List of works and bibliography


See also

*Independent Jewish Voices *
International PEN PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internati ...
*PEN Pinter Prize *Jewish left *List of Jewish Nobel laureates


References


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading


Editions

*Pinter, Harold. ''Plays: One'' , '' The Birthday Party, The Room, The Dumb Waiter, A Slight Ache, The Hothouse, A Night Out''. (London: Methuen, 1983) Contains an introductory essay, ''Writing for the Theatre''. *Pinter, Harold. ''Plays: Two'' , '' The Caretaker, The Collection, The Lover, Night School, The Dwarfs''. (London: Eyre Methuen, 1979) Contains an introductory essay, ''Writing for Myself''. *Pinter, Harold. ''Plays: Three'' , ''
The Homecoming ''The Homecoming'' is a two-act play written in 1964 and published in 1965 by Harold Pinter. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award ...
, The Tea Party, The Basement, Landscape, Silence''. (London: Eyre Methuen, 1978)


Works of criticism

*Naismith, Bill (ed.), ''Harold Pinter: Faber Critical Guide: The Caretaker, The Birthday Party,
The Homecoming ''The Homecoming'' is a two-act play written in 1964 and published in 1965 by Harold Pinter. Its premières in London (1965) and New York (1967) were both directed by Sir Peter Hall. The original Broadway production won the 1967 Tony Award ...
'' (London: Faber and Faber, 2000). . Contains introductory essays and explanatory notes.


External links

* * * *
International Harold Pinter Society
(Allied Organization of the Modern Language Association, co-publisher of ''The Pinter Review'')
"Harold Pinter"
at Granta (collection of useful links)
"Harold Pinter"
at ''guardian.co.uk'' ("The best of The Guardian's coverage, including tributes, reviews and articles from the archive," periodically updated)
"Harold Pinter"
in "Times Topics" at ''The New York Times, nytimes.com'' (periodically updated collection of news articles, reviews, commentaries, photographs, and Web resources from ''The New York Times'' )
"Harold Pinter"
on ''The Mark Shenton Show'', ''TheatreVoice'', recorded on 21 February 2007 (critics Michael Billington and Alastair Macaulay review ''Pinter's People'' and ''
The Dumb Waiter ''The Dumb Waiter'' is a one-act play by Harold Pinter written in 1957. Plot Two Hitman, hit-men, Ben and Gus, are waiting in a basement room for their assignment. As the play begins, Ben, the senior member of the team, is reading a newspaper ...
''; director and actor Harry Burton talks about his experiences with Pinter)
"Reputations: Harold Pinter"
on ''TheatreVoice'', recorded on 14 October 2005 (critical assessments by Michael Billington, Dan Rebellato, Charles Spencer (journalist), Charles Spencer and Ian Smith)
Working with Pinter, 2007 film by Harry Burton


''British Library Online Gallery: What's On'', British Library, 8 September 2008 (Pinter discusses his memories of postwar British theatre with Harry Burton)
Harold Pinter
Nobel Luminaries – Jewish Nobel Prize Winners, on th
Beit Hatfutsot-The Museum of the Jewish People
Website. *
List of Works
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinter, Harold Harold Pinter, 1930 births 2008 deaths 20th-century atheists 20th-century British essayists 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets 20th-century English screenwriters 20th-century English short story writers 20th-century British letter writers 21st-century atheists 21st-century British essayists 21st-century English dramatists and playwrights 21st-century English poets 21st-century English screenwriters 21st-century English short story writers Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama The arts and politics BAFTA fellows Best British Screenplay BAFTA Award winners Best Screenplay BAFTA Award winners Booker authors' division British anthologists British male essayists British media critics British psychological fiction writers Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery Commanders of the Order of the British Empire David Cohen Prize recipients Deaths from liver cancer in England English activists English anti–Iraq War activists English anti–nuclear weapons activists English anti-war activists English Ashkenazi Jews English atheists English conscientious objectors English essayists English film directors English human rights activists Jewish English writers English literary critics English male dramatists and playwrights English male film actors English male non-fiction writers English male novelists English male poets English male screenwriters English male short story writers English male stage actors English male television actors English male television writers English Nobel laureates English pacifists English people of Polish-Jewish descent English people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent English political writers English radio writers English socialists British social justice activists English sociologists English television directors English television writers English theatre directors Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature British free speech activists Foreign members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Jewish atheists Jewish dramatists and playwrights Jewish British activists Jewish English male actors Laurence Olivier Award winners British lecturers Literacy and society theorists British literary theorists Mass media theorists Members of the Academy of Arts, Berlin Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts Nobel laureates in Literature PEN International People associated with Queen Mary University of London People educated at Hackney Downs School Writers from Hackney Central People from Lower Clapton British recipients of the Legion of Honour Rhetoric theorists Sociologists of art Surrealist writers Theatre of the Absurd Theatre theorists Theatrologists Tony Award winners Writers about activism and social change Writers about globalization Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age