Tom Stoppard, playwright who won five Tony Awards, in addition to the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for the film Shakespeare in Love (1998), has died at the age of 88. The information was confirmed to the press by his agents, but the cause of death was not disclosed.
“He will be remembered for his works, his brilliance and humanity, wit, generosity of spirit and his deep love for the English language,” said a statement. London theaters promise to turn off their lights for two minutes at 7pm next Tuesday in recognition of Stoppard.
Tomás Sträussler, his given name, was born in Cheoslovakia (in the city of Zlín, currently in Czech territory) on July 3, 1937. When he was just two years old, his family suffered from the Second World War (1939-1945): his four grandparents died in concentration camps.
Continues after advertising
He had to flee to the Singapore region, in Asia. Later, he would go to India. His father had to stay a little longer and would go later, but he ended up dying when the ship that was taking him was attacked. After the war, in 1946, his mother married an English soldier, Kenneth Stoppard, and the family returned to Europe, this time to live in the United Kingdom.
At the age of eight, he spent part of his childhood and youth in the country, having acquired many of the local habits, such as his passion for cricket and his interest in William Shakespeare’s texts. Tom Stoppard didn’t go to college, but he worked as a journalist. He wrote several plays in English theater before migrating to Broadway.
Over a more than six-decade career, Stoppard used his brain for theater, radio and film and encompassed Shakespeare, science, philosophy and 20th century historical tragedies in his work. He received five Tony Awards, the most prestigious in theater in the United States, for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1968), Travesties (1976), The Real Thing (1984), The Coast of Utopia (2007), and Leopoldstadt (2023).
Tom Stoppard was considered the greatest playwright of his generation in the United Kingdom, having won several theater awards. Singer Mick Jagger, from the Rolling Stones, lamented his death: “He leaves us a majestic work of fun and intelligent work”.
In cinema, his greatest recognition came when he received the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, together with Marc Norman. The film was nominated in thirteen categories and won seven awards in total. Among them, best actress for Gwyneth Paltrow, who competed against Brazilian Fernanda a Montenegro, nominated for her work in Central do Brasil.
