Tom Stoppard, Titan of Theatre and Oscar-Winning Screenwriter, Dies at 87
LONDON, United Kingdom (WHN) – Sir Tom Stoppard, the intellectually dazzling and profoundly witty British playwright who reshaped modern theatre with works like “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” has died. He was 87.
Stoppard passed away peacefully Friday evening at his home in Dorset, England. His death followed a brief illness, his publicist confirmed in a statement released Saturday morning.
“It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce the death of our beloved husband and father, Tom Stoppard,” the family’s statement read. “He passed away surrounded by family.”
A towering figure in English literature for over half a century, Stoppard was celebrated for his masterful use of language. His plays blended high-minded philosophical debate with vaudevillian comedy and intricate plotting.
His breakthrough came in 1966. “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead,” an absurdist tragicomedy that reframed Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” from the perspective of two minor characters, catapulted Stoppard to international fame and earned him his first Tony Award.
Accolades defined his career. Stoppard won an Academy Award for co-writing the screenplay for the 1998 film “Shakespeare in Love.” His work on the stage secured four Tony Awards for Best Play, with his final major work, “Leopoldstadt,” winning the prestigious award in 2023.
Born Tomáš Straussler in Zlín, Czechoslovakia, in 1937, Stoppard’s early life was marked by dislocation and tragedy. His family, who were non-observant Jews, fled the Nazi occupation, relocating to Singapore. His father, a doctor with the Bata shoe company, was killed during the Japanese invasion.
Stoppard, his brother, and his mother escaped to India. His mother later married British army major Kenneth Stoppard, who gave the boys his English surname and moved the family to England in 1946.
Tributes began pouring in from the theatre world. The National Theatre’s Director, Rufus Norris, described Stoppard as a “titan of the stage.”
Norris stated Stoppard’s intellect was “matched only by his wit and his humanity.” He said the playwright “changed the language of theatre” with work that was both “intellectually dazzling and deeply moving.”
Stoppard’s extensive body of work includes landmark plays such as “Arcadia,” which weaves together themes of thermodynamics, landscape gardening, and Romantic poetry. Other major works include “The Real Thing,” “Travesties,” and the epic trilogy “The Coast of Utopia.”
His final masterpiece, “Leopoldstadt,” was also his most personal. The play directly confronted his own Jewish heritage, which he had not fully explored until later in life, tracing the fate of a prosperous Jewish family in Vienna through the first half of the 20th century.
Beyond the stage, Stoppard contributed to major film screenplays. His credits include Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” and Steven Spielberg’s “Empire of the Sun.”
He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his contributions to literature. In 2000, he was appointed to the prestigious Order of Merit, an honor restricted to 24 living members.
Stoppard is survived by his wife, Sabrina Guinness, and his four sons from previous marriages.
