Award-winning playwright Stoppard dies aged 88

The award-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard has died aged 88. He passed away peacefully at his home in Dorset surrounded by his family, 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.”

- CAITLIN HORNIK

Among those paying tribute was Sir Mick Jagger, who said Stoppard was “a giant of the English theatre” and a “friend and companion” who he would always miss.

Over his six-decade career, Stoppard earned Tony and Olivier awards, as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for his and Marc Norman’s 1998 screenplay Shakespeare In Love, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Dame Judi Dench, and Joseph Fiennes.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard was forced to flee his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain. After working as a journalist and theatre critic he began writing plays for radio and TV.

His career as a playwright did not take off, however, until the 1960s with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before going on to the National Theatre and later Broadway. The play, which focuses on two minor characters from Hamlet, won several awards, including four Tonys in 1968.