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Legendary playwright Sir Tom Stoppard has died at 88.
The five-time Tony winner, most famous for his groundbreaking 1966 play “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset, England, United Agents said in a statement.
“He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language,” the statement read.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
Stoppard, born Tomáš Sträussler, is also known for “Travesties” (1976), “The Real Thing” (1984), “The Coast of Utopia” (2007) and “Leopoldstadt” (2023), all of which won Tony Awards for Best Play.
He additionally won an Academy Award for co-writing Gwyneth Paltrow’s 1999 hit film “Shakespeare In Love.”
Other screenwriting credits include “Empire of the Sun” (1987) and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989).
Stoppward was born in 1937 in what was then known as Czechoslovakia. He was less than two years old when he fled with his Jewish family shortly before the German occupation of that country.
Largely raised in England, he became a naturalized British citizen and dropped out of high school at age 17.
He subsequently worked as a journalist and produced plays for radio, television, and theatre, before “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1966.
The absurdist play, which focused on two minor characters from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” became a smash hit and moved to Broadway, where it ran between 1967 and 1968.
It turned Stoppard into an international sensation.
The play featured stylistic traits that would go on to become trademarks of a Stoppard play: complex wordplay, philosophical themes, and absurdist humor.
The term “Stoppardian” even entered the public lexicon, used to describe works that employed humor and wit while addressing deep philosophical concepts.
He became one of England’s most famous playwrights and was knighted for his services to literature by Queen Elizabeth in 1997.
Stoppard’s personal life was almost as action-packed as his professional one.
He was married three times: unions to Josie Ingle, a nurse, and Miriam Stern, a TV journalist, ended in divorce. He wed producer Sabrina Guinness in 2014.
Stoppard is survived by his four sons: Oliver, Barnaby, Will and Ed.
Ed Stoppard is a famed actor, best known for his role in Roman Polanski’s 2002 Oscar-winner, “The Pianist.”
