Sir Tom Stoppard, playwright famed for his wit and depth, dies at 88

Seher Asafand

Patrick Jackson

Matt Humphrey

Sir Tom Stoppard, one of the UK’s best-known playwrights, has died aged 88, his agents have announced.

Sir Tom, who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the screenplay for Shakespeare In Love, "died peacefully at home in Dorset, surrounded by his family".

King Charles III and Queen Camilla said they were "deeply saddened" by the death of "one of our greatest writers".

"A dear friend who wore his genius lightly, he could, and did, turn his pen to any subject, challenging, moving and inspiring his audiences, borne from his own personal history," they said in a statement.

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard dies at 88

"We send our most heartfelt sympathy to his beloved family. Let us all take comfort in his immortal line: 'Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else'."

The line is from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, one of his most notable stage works which also include The Real Thing.

In a statement announcing his death, United Agents said: "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.

"It was an honour to work with Tom and to know him."

The playwright captivated the hearts of audiences for more than six decades with work that explored philosophical and political themes.

Paying tribute to his "favourite playwright", Sir Mick Jagger posted on social media: "He leaves us with a majestic body of intellectual and amusing work. I will always miss him."

Publishing company Faber Books said Sir Tom was "one of the most brilliant and feted playwrights of the last sixty years and one of the great intellects of our time".

"Tom has been at the heart of Faber Drama since his first play, the dazzling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He will be missed beyond measure," it added.

He also wrote for film, TV and radio. He adapted Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina for the 2012 film starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law.

In 2020, he released his semi-autobiographical new work titled Leopoldstadt - set in the Jewish quarter of early 20th Century Vienna - which later won him an Olivier award for best new play and scooped four Tony awards.

Born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia, he fled his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain.

He later learned from relatives that all four of his grandparents had been Jewish, and that they had died in Nazi concentration camps.

"I feel incredibly lucky not to have had to survive or die. It's a conspicuous part of what might be termed a charmed life," he said in US magazine Talk in 1999, as he reflected on returning to his birthplace Zlin in what is now the Czech Republic.

He worked as a journalist in Bristol in 1954 before becoming a theatre critic and writing plays for radio and TV.

"I wanted to be a great journalist," he said, as quoted by Reuters news agency. "My first ambition was to be lying on the floor of an African airport while machine-gun bullets zoomed over my typewriter. But I wasn't much use as a reporter. I felt I didn't have the right to ask people questions.

"I always thought they'd throw the teapot at me or call the police."

Sir Tom's career as a playwright did not take off until the 1960s when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It was later performed at the National Theatre and Broadway.

The play focuses on two minor characters from Hamlet. It won several awards including four Tonys in 1968, including best play.

He received many honours and accolades throughout his career, including being knighted by the late Queen for his services to literature in 1997.

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Sir Tom Stoppard and the late Queen in the year 2000. The playwright was knighted in 1997.

The Olivier Awards organisation, which recognise excellence in theatre, said West End theatres would dim their lights for two minutes at 19:00 BST on 2 December to remember the playwright.

In a post on X, it said Sir Tom had won three Olivier Awards and five Tony awards - for Broadway theatre - as well as the Oscar for Shakespeare in Love.

"That recognition attests to the remarkable range and enduring impact of his work on both stage and screen," it said.

Rupert Goold, artistic director of the Almeida Theatre, described Sir Tom as the "most supportive, most generous man" whose "magic was present in everything he wrote".

London's Royal Court Theatre paid tribute to a "playwright whose work probed the deepest human mysteries of truth, time, mortality and frailty while dazzling with wit, laughter and the buoyancy of the human spirit".

Lyricist Sir Tim Rice said he "was in awe of nearly everything" Sir Tom did.

"He was able to mix intellectual arguments and philosophical thought with sheer wit and fun and that was apparent in Rosencrantz And Guildenstern, which was his first big success, and I remained very much in awe of him, but he also became a friend and I was very honoured to know him," he told BBC News.

"He's written at least half a dozen, probably twice that, plays that will live for a long, long time - however brilliant plays are, a lot of them don't last much beyond their era, but I think Tom Stoppard's will, no question."

Among other tributes:

Britain's National Theatre said it was "devastated", adding: "As a cornerstone of the National Theatre for 50 years, Tom's influence on British theatre has been simply immense"John Lennon's son, Sean Ono Lennon, described him as an "absolute genius" The Writers' Guild said it was "sad to learn of his death", adding that he had been the recipient of their award for outstanding contribution to writing in 2017Getty Images

Actors Daniel Radcliffe (right) and Joshua McGuire in an Old Vic production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 2017