Honours and awards to Harold Pinter

Honours and awards to Harold Pinter lists (in chronological order) honours, awards, prizes, and honorary degrees received by English playwright Harold Pinter (1930–2008), which often acknowledge his international importance and his reach beyond national and regional boundaries.

Contents 1 Background 2 Honours, awards, and prizes 3 Honorary degrees 4 See also 5 Notes 6 Further reading 7 External links

Background

Pinter declined a British knighthood in 1996, when it was offered to him on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II by British Prime Minister John Major, then leader of the Conservative Party.^[1] Despite his declining it, many in the media (both in the UK and elsewhere) still refer erroneously to Pinter as "Sir Harold Pinter."^[2][3]

In addition to having already been made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1966, he accepted the award of Companion of Honour (CH) for services to Literature from the British monarch in 2002. He was presented the Nobel Prize in Literature in December 2005 and the French Légion d'honneur in January 2007.

He was awarded academic honorary degrees at the University of Leeds, in April 2007 (in person), at which its Humanities faculty processed in full academic garb solely to present the honorary doctorate to Pinter;^[4] at the University of Kragujevac, in Serbia;^[5] and at the University of Cambridge, in June 2008 (both of the latter in absentia).^[6] In December 2007, the British Library announced that it had acquired his literary archive for over £1.1 million (approx. US$2.24 million) on behalf of the British nation.^[2]

After having accepted the honorary presidency of the Central School of Speech and Drama, a constituent college of the University of London, in October 2008, he received an honorary fellowship during its honorary degree ceremony, also in absentia, due to ill health, on 10 December 2008,^[7][8] two weeks before his death from cancer on 24 December 2008.^[9]

Honours, awards, and prizes

• Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), 1966^[10]
• Shakespeare Prize (Hamburg), 1970
• European Prize for Literature (Vienna), 1973
• Pirandello Prize (Palermo), 1980
• Giles Cooper Award, 1981
• Chilean Order of Merit, 1992
• The David Cohen Prize, 1995
• Honorary fellow of Queen Mary, University of London
• Laurence Olivier Special Award, 1996
• Molière d'honneur, Paris, in recognition of his life's work, 1997
• Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence, 1997
• BAFTA Fellowship, 1997
• Companion of Literature, RSL, 1998
• The Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts, 2000
• Brianza Poetry Prize (Italy), 2000
• South Bank Show Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts, 2001^[11]
• ST Dupont Golden Pen Award, 2001 for a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature
• "Premio Fiesole ai Maestri del Cinema", Italy, 2001
• World Leaders Award (World Leaders: A Festival of Creative Genius, Toronto), 2001^[12]
• Hermann Kesten Medallion for outstanding commitment on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers, awarded by German PEN (Berlin), 2001
• Companion of Honour (CH) for services to Literature, 2002
• Diploma ad Honorem, Teatro Filodrammatici (Milan), 2004
• Evening Standard Awards, 50th Anniversary - Special Award, 2004
• Wilfred Owen Poetry Prize, 2005
• Franz Kafka Prize, 2005
• Nobel Prize in Literature, 2005
• Europe Theatre Prize, 2006^[13]
• Serbian Foundation Prize, 2006
• St. George Plaque of the City of Kragujevac, 2006
• Legion d'honneur, France, 2007

Honorary degrees

• University of Reading, 1970
• University of Birmingham, 1971
• University of Glasgow, 1974
• University of East Anglia, 1974
• University of Stirling, 1979
• Brown University, 1982
• University of Hull, 1986
• University of Sussex, 1990
• University of East London, 1994
• University of Sofia, 1995
• University of Bristol, 1998
• Goldsmiths, University of London, 1999
• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2000
• University of Florence, 2001
• University of Turin, 2002
• National University of Ireland, 2004
• University of Leeds, 2007
• University of Kragujevac, 2008
• University of Cambridge, 2008
• Central School of Speech and Drama, 2008

See also

• Characteristics of Harold Pinter's work
• The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library
• List of people who have declined a British honour

Notes

Further reading

• Billington, Michael. Harold Pinter. 2nd ed. London: Faber and Faber, 2007. ISBN 9780571234769 (13). ISBN 0571171036 (10). Print. (The official authorized biography.) [Updated ed. of The Life and Work of Harold Pinter 1996. London: Faber and Faber, 1997.]
• The Swedish Academy. "Bio-bibliography: Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize in Literature 2005". NobelPrize.org. The Swedish Academy and The Nobel Foundation, 2005. Web. 5 Jan. 2009. (Contains both "Biobibliographical Notes" and ""Bibliography", with the latter hyperlinked separately in site menu.)

External links

• "Harold Pinter: Awards" – Biography at HaroldPinter.org: The Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter. (Through 2007; periodically updated.)
• "Harold Pinter's Appearances, Publications, or Productions" – Harold Pinter Society Webpage. (Periodically updated.)

Nobel Laureates in Literature (2001–2025) V. S. Naipaul (2001) Imre Kertész (2002) J. M. Coetzee (2003) Elfriede Jelinek (2004) Harold Pinter (2005) Orhan Pamuk (2006) Doris Lessing (2007) J. M. G. Le Clézio (2008) Herta Müller (2009) Mario Vargas Llosa (2010) Tomas Tranströmer (2011) Complete list (1901–1925) (1926–1950) (1951–1975) (1976–2000) (2001–2025)

Society of London Theatre Special Award 1979–2000 Laurence Olivier (1979) · Ralph Richardson (1980) · Charles Wintour (1982) · Joan Littlewood (1983) · John Gielgud (1985) · Alec Guinness (1988) · Peggy Ashcroft (1991) · Ninette de Valois (1992) · Kenneth MacMillan (1993) · Sam Wanamaker (1994) · Harold Pinter (1996) · Margaret Harris (1997) · Ed Mirvish / David Mirvish (1998) · Peter Hall (1999) 2001–present Rupert Rhymes (2002) · Sam Mendes (2003) · Judi Dench (2004) · Alan Bennett (2005) · Ian McKellen (2006) · John Tomlinson (2007) · Andrew Lloyd Webber (2008) · Alan Ayckbourn (2009) · Maggie Smith (2010)  · Stephen Sondheim (2011) Complete list · (1979–2000) · (2001–2025)

Harold Pinter Plays Ashes to Ashes The Basement Betrayal The Birthday Party The Caretaker Celebration The Collection The Dumb Waiter The Dwarfs Family Voices The Homecoming The Hothouse A Kind of Alaska Landscape The Lover Moonlight Monologue Mountain Language A Night Out Night School No Man's Land Old Times One for the Road Party Time Remembrance of Things Past (with Di Trevis) The Room Silence A Slight Ache Tea Party Victoria Station Voices (with James Clarke) Dramatic sketches Apart From That Applicant The Black and White Dialogue for Three God's District Interview Last to Go The New World Order Night Precisely Press Conference Request Stop, Special Offer That's All That's Your Trouble Trouble in the Works Screenplays Accident Betrayal The Birthday Party The Caretaker The Comfort of Strangers The Compartment The Dreaming Child The French Lieutenant's Woman The Go-Between The Handmaid's Tale The Heat of the Day The Homecoming Langrishe, Go Down The Last Tycoon Lolita Party Time The Proust Screenplay The Pumpkin Eater The Quiller Memorandum The Remains of the Day Reunion The Servant Sleuth The Tragedy of King Lear The Trial Turtle Diary Victory Related articles Works Bibliography Characteristics Honours and awards Relationship with academia The Harold Pinter Archive in the British Library Harold Pinter and politics Art, Truth and Politics