Harold Pinter CH CBE (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1971), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others' works. Pinter was born and raised in Hackney, east London, and educated at Hackney Downs School. He was a sprinter and a keen cricket player, acting in school plays and writing poetry. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but did not complete the course. He was fined for refusing national service as a conscientious objector. Subsequently, he continued training at the Central School of Speech and Drama and worked in repertory theatre in Ireland and England. In 1956 he married actress Vivien Merchant and had a son, Daniel, born in 1958. He left Merchant in 1975 and married author Lady Antonia Fraser in 1980. Pinter's career as a playwright began with a production of The Room in 1957. His second play, The Birthday Party, closed after eight performances, but was enthusiastically reviewed by critic Harold Hobson. His early works were described by critics as "comedy of menace". Later plays such as No Man's Land (1975) and Betrayal (1978) became known as "memory plays". He appeared as an actor in productions of his own work on radio and film. He also undertook a number of roles in works by other writers. He directed nearly 50 productions for stage, theatre and screen. Pinter received over 50 awards, prizes, and other honours, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2005 and the French Légion d'honneur in 2007. Despite frail health after being diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in December 2001, Pinter continued to act on stage and screen, last performing the title role of Samuel Beckett's one-act monologue Krapp's Last Tape, for the 50th anniversary season of the Royal Court Theatre, in October 2006. He died from liver cancer on 24 December 2008. Description above from the Wikipedia article Harold Pinter, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Filmography

• 2024Retrógrado — Original Story
• 2019The Collection — Writer
• 2019The New World Order — Writer
• 2016A Walk By Waiting — Writer
• 2016National Theatre Live: No Man's Land — Theatre Play
• 2011Talk Show — Theatre Play
• 2010Harold Pinter: A Celebration — Self (archive footage), Writer
• 2007Celebration — Writer
• 2007Krapp's Last Tape — Krapp / Self (Introduction)
• 2007Le Gardien — Author
• 2007Sleuth — Man on T.V., Screenplay
• 2007Working with Pinter — Self, Writer
• 2005Art, Truth and Politics — self, Writer
• 2004The Caretaker — Author
• 2004Under a False Name — Thanks
• 2003Victoria Station — Writer
• 2002The Dwarfs — Writer
• 2001Catastrophe — The Director
• 2001One for the Road — Nicolas
• 2001The Tailor of Panama — Uncle Benny
• 2001Wit — Mr. Bearing
• 1999Against the War — himself, Writer
• 1999Mansfield Park — Sir Thomas Bertram
• 1999The Dumb Waiter — Writer
• HARDtalk
• 1997Mojo — Sam Ross
• 1996Breaking the Code — John Smith
• 1995Landscape — Director, Writer
• 1993The Trial — Screenplay
• 1992Party Time — Screenplay, Director
• 1991Old Times — Writer
• Performance — Writer, Director
• 1990The Comfort of Strangers — Screenplay
• 1990The Handmaid's Tale — Screenplay
• 1989Reunion — Screenplay
• 1989The Heat of the Day — Writer
• 1988Mountain Language — Director, Writer
• 1987Basements — Writer
• 1987The Birthday Party — Nat Goldberg, Writer
• 1985One for the Road — Writer
• Screen Two — Screenplay
• 1985The Dumb Waiter — Writer
• Theatre Night — Goldberg, Theatre Play
• 1985Turtle Diary — Man in Bookshop, Screenplay
• 1984A Kind of Alaska — Writer
• 1983Betrayal — Writer
• 1983Landscape — Writer
• 1982The Hothouse — Director, Writer
• 1981Poets Against the Bomb
• 1981The Caretaker — Writer
• 1981The French Lieutenant's Woman — Screenplay
• 1980The Rear Column — Director
• 1978Die Geburtstagsfeier — Director
• Do You Remember? — Writer
• 1978Langrishe, Go Down — Barry Shannon, Screenplay
• 1978No Man's Land — Writer
• BBC2 Play of the Week — Barry Shannon, Writer
• Laurence Olivier Presents — Writer
• 1976Rogue Male — Saul Abrahams
• Teatro Estudio — Writer
• 1976The Collection — Screenplay
• 1976The Last Tycoon — Screenplay
• Arena — Writer
• 1975Old Times — Writer
• 1974Butley — Director
• 1973Birthday — Writer
• 1973Monologue — Writer
• 1973The Homecoming — Screenplay, Theatre Play
• 1971The Go-Between — Screenplay
• 1970The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer — Steven Hench
• 1969Last to Go — Writer
• 1968The Birthday Party — Screenplay, Theatre Play
• 1967A Night Out — Writer
• 1967A Slight Ache — Writer
• 1967Accident — Bell - TV Producer, Screenplay
• NBC Experiment in Television — Self / (voice), Writer
• 1967The Basement — Stott, Writer
• 1966Modesty Blaise — Co-Writer
• 1966The Quiller Memorandum — Screenplay
• 1965Tea Party — Writer
• 1964In Camera — Garcin
• 1964The Caretaker — Man, Writer
• 1964The Pumpkin Eater — Screenplay
• The Wednesday Play — Garcin
• Theatre 625 — Stott, Writer
• 1963Kolleksjonen — Author
• 1963The Lover — Writer
• 1963The Servant — People in Restaurant: Society Man, Screenplay
• Playdate — Writer
• 1961The Dumb Waiter — Writer
• 1960A Night Out — Seeley, Writer
• 1960Night School — Writer
• The Collection — Writer
• The Servant — Original Film Writer

Appearances as themselves (7)

• 2023Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story — Self (archive footage)
• The Culture Show — Self
• 2003Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film — Self
• 1997Michael Redgrave: My Father — Self
• The South Bank Show — Self
• 1962This Week in Britain #199: The Caretaker — Self
• Tony Awards — Self - Nominee