Ronald Harwood

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ronald Harwood
Born November 9, 1934 (1934-11-09) (age 73)
Cape Town, South Africa
Occupation Writer, Screenwriter
Years active 1960-present

Ronald Harwood CBE, (born November 9, 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a writer, principally a playwright and screenwriter. He is the son of Isaac Horwitz and his wife Isobel (Pepper).

He was educated at Seapoint Boys’ High School, Cape Town. He married Natasha Richie.[1] The actor Sir Antony Sher is his cousin.

Contents

[edit] Theatre work

Harwood moved to London in 1951 to pursue a career in the theatre. After training for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he joined the Shakespeare Company of Sir Donald Wolfit, one of the last great actor-managers in Great Britain. From 1953 to 1958, Harwood was Sir Donald's personal dresser. He would later draw on this experience when writing his play, The Dresser, and he wrote the biography: Sir Donald Wolfit CBE: His life and work in the Unfashionable Theatre.

In 1959, after leaving the Wolfit company. he joined the 59 Theatre Company for a season at the Lyric Hammersmith.

[edit] Writing career

In 1960, he started a new career as a writer and became quite prolific, penning novels, plays and non-fiction books. He also worked as a screenwriter, but seldom wrote original material directly for the screen, usually acting as an adapter, sometimes of his own work (notably The Dresser).

[edit] Playwright and Theatre historian

One of the recurring themes in Harwood's work is his fascination for the stage, its performing artists and artisans as displayed in the The Dresser, his plays, After the Lions (about Sarah Bernhardt), Another Time (a semi-autobiographical piece about a gifted South African pianist), Quartet (about ageing opera singers) and his non-fiction book All the World's a Stage, a general history of theatre.

His plays include:

In February 2008 his play An English Tragedy, based on the true story of the British fascist John Amery, received its world premiere at the Palace Theatre Watford in a production directed by Di Trevis.[3][4]

[edit] Screenwriter

Harwood also has a strong interest in World War II, as shown by the films Operation Daybreak, The Statement, The Pianist, and his play turned to film Taking Sides. Based on true stories, the two last films feature musicians as their main characters.

He also wrote the screenplay for the films, The Browning Version (1994) with Albert Finney, Being Julia (2004) with Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons, and Roman Polanski's version of Oliver Twist (2005) with Ben Kingsley.

He won an Academy Award for the script of The Pianist, having already been nominated for The Dresser in 1983. Harwood received his third Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2007 for his adaptation of the memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, for which he also won a BAFTA.

[edit] Recognition

Harwood was president of the English PEN Club from 1989 to 1993, and of International PEN from 1993 to 1997. He was Chairman of the Royal Society of Literature (2001 to 2004) and is President of the Royal Literary Fund (2005). He was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1974, Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (1996) and Commander of the British Empire in 1999. In 2003 he was elected a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Language and Literature.

[edit] Selected Filmography

Screenplay, unless stated.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ronald Harwood's CV in Who's Who in the Theatre 17th edition (1981)
  2. ^ Stage review of the 2004-5 revival of The Dresser [1]
  3. ^ Financial Times interview with Ronald Harwood, 16 February 2008[2]
  4. ^ Evening Standard review, 19 February 2008[3]

[edit] External links

AUSTRALIA: a baz luhrmann film

[edit] See also