Tom Stoppard facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Sir Tom Stoppard
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Stoppard in 2022
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| Born | Tomáš Sträussler 3 July 1937 Zlín, Czechoslovakia (present day Czech Republic) |
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| Education | Pocklington School Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling |
| Period | 1953–present |
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| Notable awards | Full list |
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| Partner | Felicity Kendal (1991–1998) |
| Children | 4, including Ed |
Sir Tom Stoppard (born Tomáš Sträussler, 3 July 1937) is a famous British writer. He writes plays for the stage, movies, radio, and TV shows. He became very well known for his plays.
His stories often explore big ideas like human rights, stopping people from speaking freely (censorship), and political freedom. He also looks at deeper ideas about how society works. Stoppard has worked as a playwright for the Royal National Theatre. He is one of the most performed playwrights of his time around the world. In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II made him a "Sir" (knighted him) for his amazing work in theatre.
Stoppard was born in Czechoslovakia. He had to leave his home as a child because of the Nazis. After the war, in 1946, he and his family settled in Britain. Before that, he spent three years (1943–1946) at a boarding school in Darjeeling, India, in the Himalayas. After school in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard first became a journalist, then a drama critic, and finally a playwright in 1960.
Some of his most famous plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Arcadia (1993), and Leopoldstadt (2020). He also wrote screenplays (movie scripts) for films like Brazil (1985) and Shakespeare in Love (1998). He even directed the movie version of his own play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990).
He has won many important awards, including an Academy Award (Oscar), a Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, a newspaper called The Daily Telegraph said he was one of the "100 most powerful people in British culture." His play Leopoldstadt won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Stoppard was born Tomáš Sträussler in Zlín, Czechoslovakia. This city was famous for making shoes. His father, Eugen Sträussler, was a doctor for the Bata shoe company. His parents were Jewish, but they didn't strictly follow their religion.
Just before the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia, the Bata company helped its Jewish employees move to other countries. On March 15, 1939, the day the Nazis invaded, the Sträussler family escaped to Singapore, where Bata also had a factory.
Before Japan took over Singapore, Tomáš, his brother, and their mother went to India. Stoppard's father stayed in Singapore to help as a British army doctor. When Stoppard was four, his father died. For a long time, Stoppard thought his father died as a prisoner of war. But later, he found out his father drowned when his ship was bombed by Japanese forces in 1942 as he tried to leave Singapore.
In 1941, Tomáš, his brother, and their mother moved to Darjeeling, India. The boys went to Mount Hermon School. There, Tomáš started being called Tom, and his brother Petr became Peter.
In 1945, his mother, Martha, married a British army major named Kenneth Stoppard. He gave the boys his English last name. In 1946, the family moved to England. Stoppard's stepfather strongly believed that being born British was like winning a lottery. He told 9-year-old Tom: "Don't you realize that I made you British?" This made Stoppard want to become "an honorary Englishman." Stoppard went to the Dolphin School in Nottinghamshire. He finished his schooling at Pocklington School in Yorkshire, which he didn't like.
Stoppard left school at 17 and started working as a journalist for the Western Daily Press in Bristol. He didn't go to university. Years later, he wished he had gone to university. But at the time, he loved his job as a journalist. He worked there from 1954 to 1958. Then, the Bristol Evening World offered him a job as a feature writer and drama critic. This job introduced him to the world of theatre. At the Bristol Old Vic theatre, Stoppard became friends with director John Boorman and actor Peter O'Toole.
Career
Early Work
Stoppard wrote short radio plays in 1953–54. By 1960, he finished his first stage play, A Walk on the Water. This play was later renamed Enter a Free Man (1968). He said it was inspired by other famous plays. Soon after sending his play to an agent, he got exciting news: his play was chosen! It was performed in Hamburg, Germany, and then shown on British TV in 1963.
From 1962 to 1963, Stoppard worked as a drama critic for Scene magazine in London. In 1964, he received a special grant that allowed him to spend five months writing in Berlin. There, he wrote a one-act play that later became his famous Tony-winning play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
In the next few years, Stoppard wrote many plays for radio, TV, and theatre. On April 11, 1967, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead opened at the Old Vic theatre. It was a huge success overnight. His play Jumpers (1972) is a murder mystery with a philosophy professor and gymnasts. Travesties (1974) explores what might have happened when famous people like Vladimir Lenin, James Joyce, and Tristan Tzara were all in Zürich during World War I.
Stoppard also wrote one novel, Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (1966). It's a quirky story set in London with unusual characters.
1980s
In the 1980s, Stoppard translated many plays into English from other languages. He was influenced by Polish and Czech "absurdist" writers, who wrote plays that often seemed strange or illogical to show deeper truths about life.
In 1982, Stoppard's play The Real Thing premiered. It's about a relationship between a man and a woman. It also explores what is real versus what just seems real, using a "play within a play" (a play being performed inside the main play). It's considered one of his most popular and personal plays.
The play moved to Broadway in 1984 and was a big hit. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Play. This was Stoppard's third Tony for Best Play.
In 1985, Stoppard helped write the movie script for Brazil, a funny and dark science-fiction film. It was highly praised and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He also wrote scripts for director Steven Spielberg, including Empire of the Sun (1987) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Spielberg said Stoppard wrote almost all the dialogue for Indiana Jones.
1990s
In 1993, Stoppard wrote Arcadia. This play connects two different time periods: modern academics and people living in an English country house in the early 1800s. It explores ideas like how things become messy over time (the second law of thermodynamics) and different styles of gardens.
The first show of Arcadia won the 1993 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. When it moved to Broadway a year later, it was also very popular and received three Tony Award nominations.
Stoppard gained more fame with the movie Shakespeare in Love (1998), which he co-wrote. This romantic comedy tells a made-up story about William Shakespeare falling in love. This love then inspires his famous play Romeo and Juliet. The movie was a huge success and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Stoppard won his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He also won a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award for his script.
2000s
The Coast of Utopia (2002) was a group of three plays Stoppard wrote. They were about the ideas and arguments among Russian revolutionary thinkers in the late 1800s. The plays were called Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage. This long play lasted nine hours! It was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award. In 2006, it came to Broadway and won seven Tony Awards, including Best Play, which was Stoppard's fourth win in that category.
Rock 'n' Roll (2006) was set in both Cambridge, England, and Prague. The play looked at 1960s rock music culture, especially the band Pink Floyd and the Czech band The Plastic People of the Universe. It showed the difference between free society in England and the strict government in Czechoslovakia after the Prague Spring.
Stoppard has also supported other cultural groups. He helped start Standpoint magazine and is a supporter of the Shakespeare Schools Festival. This charity helps school children in the UK perform Shakespeare's plays in real theatres. He was also the president of the London Library for many years.
2010s
In 2012, Stoppard adapted Leo Tolstoy's famous book Anna Karenina into a movie script for the film Anna Karenina. Critics praised his script for being "clean" and "balanced."
In 2013, Stoppard wrote a five-part TV series called Parade's End. It's about a love triangle involving an English aristocrat, his wife, and a young woman fighting for women's rights. The series was highly praised by critics. Stoppard was nominated for a British Academy Television Award and an Emmy Award for the series.
In 2019, it was announced that Stoppard had written a new play, Leopoldstadt. It is set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play first opened in January 2020 and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. It then moved to Broadway in 2022.
Screenwriting
Besides his plays, Stoppard has also helped write many movie scripts. These include Shakespeare in Love (1998) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). He also worked on Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Tim Burton's film Sleepy Hollow, though he wasn't officially credited for these.
In 2013, he wrote a radio play called Darkside. It was for BBC Radio 2 to celebrate 40 years of Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon.
Themes in His Work
Exploring Big Ideas
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966–67) was Stoppard's first big success. It tells the story of Hamlet from the point of view of two minor characters. The play uses clever wordplay and humor to explore deep ideas about life and meaning. People started using the word "Stoppardian" to describe works that are witty and funny while also dealing with philosophical concepts.
Some critics thought his plays were just clever and didn't have much deep meaning or social message. Stoppard himself once joked that his plays shouldn't be "useful." He admitted he started out loving language games more than trying to change society.
Human Rights and Politics
Later, Stoppard started writing more about social issues. From 1977, he became very involved in human rights, especially for people who were speaking out against governments in Central and Eastern Europe. In 1977, he visited the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries with Amnesty International. He also met Václav Havel, a playwright and future president of Czechoslovakia, whose writings he admired.
Stoppard became involved with groups like Index on Censorship and wrote articles about human rights. He helped translate Havel's plays into English. Plays like Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1977) and Rock 'n' Roll (2006) deal with themes of censorship, abuse of rights, and government control.
Stoppard's more recent works have focused more on human feelings and relationships, while still being intellectually playful. He says that around 1982, he started writing plays that were "less shy" about emotions. He realized that even though he loved playing with language, his plays were really about "human beings."
He loves writing for theatre because it's always changing and growing with each rehearsal. Writing for film also gives him the freedom to create his own world. It often takes him four to five years to write a play, as he does a lot of careful research.
Personal Life
Family and Relationships
Stoppard has been married three times. His first marriage was to Josie Ingle (1965–1972), a nurse. His second marriage was to Miriam Stern (1972–1992). They separated when he started a relationship with actress Felicity Kendal. He also had a relationship with actress Sinéad Cusack.
He has four sons: Oliver Stoppard, Barnaby Stoppard, the actor Ed Stoppard, and Will Stoppard. In 2014, he married Sabrina Guinness.
Stoppard's mother died in 1996. His family had not talked much about their past. In the early 1990s, after communism ended, Stoppard found out that all four of his grandparents were Jewish. They had died in concentration camps like Terezin and Auschwitz, along with three of his mother's sisters.
In 1998, after his parents died, he visited Zlín for the first time in over 50 years. He felt sad about losing his father and not knowing his family's past. But he also feels very lucky that he didn't have to experience what his family went through.
In 2013, Stoppard asked Hermione Lee to write his life story, which was published in 2020.
Political Views
In 1979, Stoppard said he was a "conservative with a small c" in politics, literature, and theatre. In 2007, he described himself as a "timid libertarian" (someone who believes in a lot of personal freedom and limited government).
The Tom Stoppard Prize was created in 1983. It is given to Czech writers.
In 2014, Stoppard supported a campaign called "Hacked Off." This group wants to make sure the press (newspapers and media) can control itself, protecting it from political interference and also protecting vulnerable people.
Awards and Recognition
Awards
In July 2013, Stoppard won the PEN Pinter Prize. This award is given for a writer's "determination to tell things as they are."
In 2017, Stoppard became an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy. This is a high honor for people in humanities and social sciences in the UK. He also became a visiting professor at St Catherine's College, Oxford.
Stoppard's image has been captured in art. A bronze sculpture of his head is kept with his papers at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Another bronze sculpture of him is on display at Chatsworth House.
Archive
All of Stoppard's papers, including his writing drafts, notes, production materials, photos, and letters, are kept at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He started this collection in 1991, and it continues to grow.
Published Works
- Novel
- 1966: Lord Malquist and Mr Moon
- Theatre Plays
- 1964: A Walk on the Water
- 1966: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
- 1968: Enter a Free Man
- 1968: The Real Inspector Hound
- 1972: Jumpers
- 1974: Travesties
- 1977: Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
- 1978: Night and Day
- 1982: The Real Thing
- 1988: Hapgood
- 1993: Arcadia
- 1995: Indian Ink
- 1997: The Invention of Love
- 2002: The Coast of Utopia (a group of three plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage)
- 2006: Rock 'n' Roll
- 2015: The Hard Problem
- 2020: Leopoldstadt
- Original Radio Plays
- 1964: The Dissolution of Dominic Boot
- 1966: If You're Glad I'll be Frank
- 1967: Albert's Bridge
- 1972: Artist Descending a Staircase
- 1982: The Dog It Was That Died
- 1991: In the Native State
- 2013: Darkside
- Television Plays
- A Separate Peace (1966)
- Professional Foul (1977)
- Squaring the Circle (1984)
- Film and Television Adaptations (Screenplays)
- 1978: Despair
- 1985: Brazil
- 1987: Empire of the Sun
- 1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- 1990: The Russia House
- 1990: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (also directed)
- 1998: Shakespeare in Love
- 2001: Enigma
- 2012: Parade's End (TV series)
- 2012: Anna Karenina
Images for kids
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Miriam and Tom Stoppard, New York City, circa 1985
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Stoppard, whose archive resides at the Harry Ransom Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus, in 1996. Image courtesy of Harry Ransom Center.
See also
In Spanish: Tom Stoppard para niños
