Ronald Harwood

Ronald Harwood
Born 9 November 1934 (1934-11-09) (age 77)
Cape Town, South Africa
Occupation Writer, Screenwriter
Years active 1960-present

Sir Ronald Harwood CBE (born 9 November 1934) is an author, playwright and screenwriter. He is most noted for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser (for which he was nominated for an Oscar) and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).

Contents

Early life and career

Harwood was born Ronald Horwitz in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of Isobel (née Pepper) and Isaac Horwitz.[1] Harwood moved from Cape Town to London in 1951 to pursue a career in the theatre. He changed his name from Horwitz after an English master told him it was too foreign and too Jewish for a stage actor.[2] After training for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he joined the Shakespeare Company of Sir Donald Wolfit. From 1953 to 1958, Harwood was Sir Donald's personal dresser. He would later draw on this experience when he wrote the stage play, The Dresser, and 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.

In 1960, Harwood began a career as a writer and published his first novel, All the Same Shadows in 1961, the screenplay, Private Potter in 1962, and the produced stage play, March Hares in 1964. Harwood continued at a prolific pace penning more than 21 stage plays, and 10 books. He also created more than 16 screen plays, but seldom wrote original material directly for the screen, usually acting as an adapter, sometimes of his own work (notably The Dresser).

One of the recurring themes in Harwood's work is his fascination for the stage, its performing artists and artisans as displayed in 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. 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. His 2008 play An English Tragedy is based on the true story of the British fascist John Amery.[3][4]

Harwood 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 and the Prix Jacques Prevert Du Scenario, 2008, for Best Adaptation. In 2008. Harwood was awarded the Humanitas Award in recognition of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

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 Order 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. He was made Doctor of Letters, Keele University (2002),[5] Doctor Honoris Causa, National Academy for Theatre & Film Arts, Sofia (2007), Honorary Fellow, Central School of Speech and Drama (2007) and Honorary Fellow, University of Chichester (2009). Harwood was knighted in the 2010 Birthday Honours.[6][7] He has been the Chairman of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford since 2008.

Personal life

He attended the Seapoint Boys’ High School in that area of Cape Town. He moved to England in 1951. In 1959, he married Natasha Riehle.[8] The actor Sir Antony Sher is his cousin. On the 12th of June 2010, he received a knighthood for services to theatre. He is the brother of South African dance critic Eve Borland.[9]

Bibliography

Stage plays

Screenplays

Books and published works

See also

Further reading

References

  1. ^ http://www.filmreference.com/film/83/Ronald-Harwood.html
  2. ^ Walker, Tim In Praise of the Patriotic Playwright, The Spectator, June 14, 2006
  3. ^ Financial Times interview with Ronald Harwood, 16 February 2008
  4. ^ Evening Standard review, 19 February 2008
  5. ^ Keele University
  6. ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59446. p. 1. 12 June 2010.
  7. ^ Zeta-Jones joins cricket buffs Duckworth and Lewis on honours list
  8. ^ Ronald Harwood's CV in Who's Who in the Theatre 17th edition (1981)
  9. ^ "Final curtain for Eve Borland - dancer, teacher, critic." (August 21, 2007) The Cape Times, Cape Town
  10. ^ Stage review of the 2004-5 revival of The Dresser

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