Harold Pinter Biography (1930-)

Born October 10, 1930, in London, England; son of Hyman (a tailor) and Frances (maiden name, Mann) Pinter; married Vivien Merchant (an actress), September14, 1956 (divorced, 1980); married Lady Antonia Fraser (a writer), November,1980; children: (first marriage) Daniel. Addresses: Contact: c/o JudyDaish Associates Ltd., 2 St. Charles Place, London, W10 6EG, England.

Nationality: British
Gender: Male
Occupation: Writer, director, producer, actor
Birth Details: October 10, 1930; London, England

Famous Works

CREDITS
Stage Director
The Room, produced on a double-bill with The Dumb Waiter, Hampstead Theatre Club, London, 1960
(With Peter Hall) The Collection, Aldwych Theatre, London, 1962
The Lover \[and (with Guy Vaesen)\] The Dwarfs (double-bill), Arts Theatre Club, London, 1963
The Birthday Party, Aldwych Theatre, 1964 , published as The Birthday Party: A Play in Three Acts, Encore (London), 1959
The Man in the Glass Booth, St. Martin's Theatre, London, 1967, then Royale Theatre, New York City, 1968
Exiles, Mermaid Theatre, London, 1970
Butley, Criterion Theatre, London, 1971
Next of Kin, National Theatre, London, 1974
Otherwise Engaged, Queen's Theatre, London, 1975 , then Plymouth Theatre, New York City, 1977
The Innocents, Morosco Theatre, New York City, 1976
Blithe Spirit, National Theatre, 1977
The Rear Column, Globe Theatre, London, 1978
Close of Play, National Theatre, 1979
The Hothouse, Hampstead Theatre Club, 1980
Quartermaine's Terms, Queen's Theatre, 1981
Incident at Tulse Hill, Hampstead Theatre Club, 1982
The Trojan War Will Not Take Place, National Theatre, 1983
The Common Pursuit, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, England, 1984
Sweet Bird of Youth, Haymarket Theatre, London, 1985
Circe and Bravo, Wyndham's Theatre, London, 1986
Party Time \[and\] Mountain Language (double-bill), AlmeidaTheatre, London, 1991
Taking Sides, Criterion Theatre, London, 1995
Twelve Angry Men, Bristol Old Vic, London, 1996
Ashes to Ashes, Theatre Upstairs, Ambassadors' Circle, London,1996
Life Support by Simon Gray, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford , 1997
The Late Middle Classes by Simon Gray, The Palace Theatre Watford,1999
Celebration and The Room, The Almeida Theatre, London, 2000; laterThe Lincoln Center Festival, New York, 2001
Stage Appearances
Officer, Twelfth Night, Donald Wolfit Company, King's Theatre,Hammersmith, 1953
Solanio, The Merchant of Venice, Donald Wolfit Company, King'sTheatre, 1953
Second murderer, Macbeth, Donald Wolfit Company, King's Theatre, 1953
Jacques, As You Like It, Donald Wolfit Company, King's Theatre, 1954
Mick, The Caretaker, 1961
Roote, The Hothouse, Chichester Festival Theatre, 1995
Tramp, Look Europe!, Almeida Theatre, London, 1997
Harry, The Collection, Gate Theatre, Dublin, 1997; later Donmar Warehouse, London, 1998
Nicolas, One for the Road, New Ambassadors Theatre, London, 2001;later Lincoln Center Festival, New York, 2001
Film Work
Director
Butley, American Film Theatre, 1974
Rear Column, 1979
Executive Producer
Remains of the Day, Columbia, 1993
Film Appearances
Society man, The Servant, Landau, 1964
Bell, Accident, London Independent Producers, 1967
Steven Hench, The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer, Warner Bros., 1970
The Tamarind Seed, 1973
Doll's Eye, 1982
Man in Bookshop, Turtle Diary, Samuel Goldwyn, 1985
Sam Ross, Mojo, Channel Four Films, 1997
Sir Thomas Bertram, Mansfield Park, Miramax, 1999
The Tailor of Panama, 2000
Mr. Weller, The Pickwick Papers, 2000
Also appeared in Langrishe, Go Down.
Television Appearances
Specials
Garcin, In Camera, BBC, 1964
Stott, The Basement, BBC, 1967
Goldberg, The Birthday Party, BBC, 1986
John Smith, "Breaking the Code," Mobil Masterpiece Theatre, PBS, 1996
Himself, Ritratto di Harold Pinter, 1998
Movies
Saul Abrahams, Rogue Male, 1976
John Smith, Breaking the Code, 1996
Catastrophe, 2000
Other Television Appearances
The Art of Film (series), NET, 1966-67
The Scene (episodic), 1966-67
Television Work
Director

The Hot House, 1982
Radio Appearances
Lord Abergavenny, Henry VIII, BBC Third Programme, 1951
Seeley, A Night Out, BBC Third Programme, 1960
The Examination, BBC Third Programme, 1962
Tea Party, BBC Third Programme, 1964
Man, Monologue, BBC, 1975
Man, Rough for Radio by Samuel Beckett, BBC, 1976
Robert, Betrayal, BBC Radio 3, 1990
The Voice of the Screenplay, The Proust Screenplay, BBC Radio 3, 1995
Reading, I Had to Go Sickby Julian McLaren Ross, BBC Radio 3, 1998
Andy, Moonlight, BBC Radio 3, 2000
Edward, A Slight Ache, BBC Radio 4, 2000
WRITINGS
Stage Plays
The Room, produced at Bristol University Memorial Building, Bristol, England, 1957 , produced at Encore Theatre, San Francisco, CA, 1960 , produced at Booth Theatre, New York City, 1967 , published in The Birthday Party and The Room: Two Plays, Grove Press (New York City), 1961
The Birthday Party, produced at Arts Theatre, Cambridge, England,1958 , produced at Encore Theatre, 1960 , produced at Booth Theatre, 1967 , produced at Lyttelton, London, 1994 , published in The Birthday Party and The Room: Two Plays, Grove Press, 1961 .The Dumb Waiter, produced in German translation by Willy H. Thiem in Frankfurt-am-Main, West Germany, 1959 , produced with The Room at Hampstead Theatre Club, London, 1960 ,produced with The Collection at Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City, 1962 , produced at Camden Studio, London, 1994 , produced at Etcetera, London,1996 , published in The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter: Two Plays, Grove Press, 1961
Trouble in the Works and The Black and White, produced together as part of revue One to Another at Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1959 , produced at Apollo Theatre, London, 1959
Request Stop, Last to Go, Special Offer, and Getting Acquainted, produced together as part of revue Pieces of Eightat Apollo Theatre, 1959
The Caretaker, produced at Arts Theatre Club, 1960 , produced at Schubert Theatre, New Haven, CT, 1961 , produced at Watermans, London, 1994 ,produced at Currican Theatre, New York City, 1994 , produced at White Bear, London, 1994 , Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cincinnati, OH, 1994-95 , published in The Caretaker and The Dumb Waiter: Two Plays, Grove Press, 1961
A Slight Ache, produced as part of triple bill Three at Arts Theatre Club, London, 1961 , produced with The Room at Writers StageTheatre, New York City, 1964 , published in Three Plays: A Slight Ache, The Collection, and The Dwarfs, Grove Press, 1962
A Night Out, produced as part of triple bill Counterpoint at Comedy Theatre, London, 1961 , produced at Park Avenue Community Theatre, 1971 , published as A Night Out: A Play, Samuel French (New York City),1961
The Collection, produced at Aldwych Theatre, London, 1962 , produced with The Dumb Waiter at Cherry Lane Theatre, 1962 , published in Three Plays: A Slight Ache, The Collection, and The Dwarfs, Grove Press,1962
The Dwarfs, produced with The Lover at Arts Theatre Club, 1963 , produced with The Dumb Waiter at Abbey Theatre, New York City, 1974 , published in Three Plays: A Slight Ache, The Collection, and The Dwarfs, Grove Press, 1962
The Lover, produced with The Dwarfs at Arts Theatre Club, 1963 , produced at Cherry Lane Theatre, 1964 , published in The Lover, TheTea Party, The Basement: Two Plays and a Film Script, Grove Press, 1967
The Homecoming, produced at New Theatre, Cardiff, Wales, 1965 , produced at Music Box Theatre, New York City, 1967 , produced at New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Drew University, Madison, NJ, 1995 , published as The Homecoming, Grove Press, 1966
Tea Party, produced with The Basement, at Eastside Playhouse, New York City, 1968 , published as The Tea Party, Dramatists Play Service (New York City), 1969
The Basement, produced on stage with Tea Party at EastsidePlayhouse, 1968 , published in The Lover, The Tea Party, The Basement: TwoPlays and a Film Script, Grove Press, 1967
Landscape, produced with Silence at Aldwych Theatre, 1969 ,and at Forum Theatre, New York City, 1970 , produced at Cottesloe, London, 1994 , published as Landscape, Pendragon Press (London), 1968
Night, produced as part of We Who Are about to ... at Hampstead Theatre Club, 1969 , produced as part of Mixed Doubles: An Entertainment on Marriage (revised version of We Who Are about to ...) at Comedy Theatre, 1969 , produced in the United States at Theatre Off Park, 1976
Silence, produced with Landscape at Aldwych Theatre, 1969 ,and Forum Theatre, New York City, 1970 , published in Landscape and Silence, Methuen (London), 1969 , Grove Press, 1970
Sketches, produced with The Local Stigmatic at Actors Playhouse, New York City, 1969
Old Times, produced at Aldwych Theatre, 1971 , produced at Billy Rose Theatre, New York City, 1971 , produced at Emlyn Williams Studio, then Wyndham's Theatre, 1995 , published as Old Times, Grove Press, 1971
Monologue, produced on stage, 1973 , published as Monologue, Covent Garden Press (London), 1973
No Man's Land, first produced at Old Vic Theatre, London, 1975, produced at Longacre Theatre, New York City, 1976 , produced at CriterionCenter Stage Right, New York City, 1994 , published as No Man's Land, Grove Press, 1975
Betrayal, produced at National Theatre, London, 1978 , produced atTrafalgar Theatre, New York City, 1980 , produced at BAC1, London, 1994 , published as Betrayal, Methuen, 1978 , Grove Press, 1979
Other Pinter Pauses (revue), produced at Victory Gardens Studio Theatre, New York City, 1979
The Hothouse, produced at Hampstead Theatre Club, 1980 , producedat Playhouse Theatre, New York City, 1982 , Chichester Festival Theatre, 1995, published as The Hothouse: A Play, Grove Press, 1980
Family Voices, produced on stage at National Theatre, 1981 , published as Family Voices, Next Editions (London), 1981
A Kind of Alaska, produced at National Theatre, 1982
Other Places (triple bill; includes Family Voices, A Kind of Alaska, and Victoria Station), produced in London, 1982 , revised version omitting Family Voices and including One for the Road, produced at Manhattan Theatre Club, New York City, 1984 , produced in London, 1985
Precisely (sketch), produced as part of The Big One in London, 1983
One for the Road, produced at Lyric Theatre, 1984 , produced withVictoria Station and A Kind of Alaska at Manhattan Theatre Club, 1984 , produced with Applicant by Walnut Street Theatre Company, Philadelphia, PA, c. 1986 , published as One for the Road, Methuen, 1984
Mountain Language, produced at National Theatre, 1988 , produced with The Birthday Party at CSC Theatre, New York City, 1989 , publishedas Mountain Language, Faber and Faber (Boston, MA), 1988
Party Time, Almeida Theatre, London, 1991 , published in PartyTime and The New World Order: Two Plays, Grove Press, 1993
Moonlight, produced at Roundabout Theatre, New York City, 1995 , Grove Press, 1994
Ashes to Ashes, produced at Theatre Upstairs, Ambassadors' Circle, 1996
Celebration,produced at The Almeida Theatre, London, 2000; later American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco, 2001
Remembrance of Things Past, presented at Cottesloe Theatre at theRoyal National Theatre, London, 2000
Screenplays
The Servant, Landau, 1963 , published in The Servant and OtherScreenplays, Faber and Faber, 1991
(With Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco) The Compartment (unreleased), published in Project I, Grove Press, 1963
The Pumpkin Eater, Royal-Columbia, 1964
The Guest (also known as The Caretaker), Janus, 1964
The Quiller Memorandum, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1966
The Accident, London Independent Producers, 1967
The Birthday Party, Continental, 1968
Langrishe Go Down, 1970
The Go-Between, Columbia, 1971
Five Screenplays, Methuen, 1971 , revised edition, Karnac (London), 1971 , and Grove Press, 1973
The Homecoming, American Film Theatre, 1973
The Last Tycoon, Paramount, 1976
(With Joseph Losey and Barbara Bray) The Proust Screenplay: A la recherche du temps perdu (based on Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past), published by Grove Press, 1978
The French Lieutenant's Woman, United Artists, 1981 , published as The Screenplay of the French Lieutenant's Woman, Methuen, 1981
Victory, 1982
Betrayal, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1983
Turtle Diary, Samuel Goldwyn, 1985
The Room, 1987
The Dumb Waiter, 1987
Reunion (also known as L'ami retrouve), Castle Hill, 1989
The Handmaid's Tale, Cinecom, 1990
The Comfort of Strangers, Skouras, 1990 , published in The Comfort of Strangers and Other Screenplays, Faber and Faber, 1990
The Trial, Angelika, 1993 , published as The Trial: Adapted from the Novel by Franz Kafka, Faber and Faber, 1993
The Lover, 1993
The Dreaming Child, 1997 (not yet filmed)
The Tragedy of King Lear, 2000 (not yet filmed)
Television Specials
The Collection, 1975
The Last Tycoon, 1976
The Birthday Party, 1986
Basements (also known as The Room), 1987
The Dumb Waiter, 1987
The Heat of the Day, Granada, 1989
Television Movies
A Night Out (also known as Armchair Theatre: A Night Out),1960
Alskaren, 1964
En Kopp te, 1965
Rummet, 1968
Provod, 1974
The Collection (also known as Laurence Olivier Presents: The Collection), 1975
The Birthday Party, 1986
The Dumb Waiter, 1987
Basements (also known as The Room), 1987
Old Times, 1993
Bez pogovora, 1999
Poetry
(Editor with John Fuller and Peter Redgrove) New Poems 1967: A P.E.N.Anthology, Hutchinson, 1968
Poems, edited by Alan Clodd, Enitharmon Press (London), 1968 , 2ndedition, 1971
Poems and Prose, 1949-1977, Grove Press, 1978 , revised edition published as Collected Poems and Prose, Methuen, 1986
I Know the Place: Poems, Greville Press (Warwick, England), 1979
(Editor with Geoffrey Godbert and Anthony Astbury) A Hundred Poems bya Hundred Poets: An Anthology, Methuen, 1986
(Editor with Geoffrey Godbert and Anthony Astbury) 99 Poems in Translation: An Anthology, Grove Press, 1994
Contributor of poems, under pseudonym Harold Pinta, to Poetry London.
Other
Mac (nonfiction), Pendragon Press, 1968
The Dwarfs (novel), Grove Weidenfeld (New York City), 1990
Complete Works: Harold Pinter, Grove Weidenfeld, 1990
Selections, 1996 Collected Poems and Prose (collection), Grove Press, 1996
Also contributor of articles to anthologies and periodicals.

Further Reference

OTHER SOURCES

Books:

Armstrong, Raymond, Kafka and Pinter: Shadow Boxing, New York, 1999.
Batty, Mark, Writers & Their Work: Harold Pinter, Northcote House, 2001.
Billington, M., Life and Times of Harold Pinter, 1997.
Bold, Alan, editor, Harold Pinter: You Never Heard Such Silence, Vision Press (London), 1984.
Burkman, Katherine H., The Dramatic World of Harold Pinter, Columbus, OH, 1971.
Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series, Volume 33, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1991.
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 1, Gale, 1973, Volume 3, 1975, Volume 6, 1976, Volume 9, 1978, Volume 11, 1979, Volume 15, 1980, Volume27, 1984.
Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 13: British Dramatistssince World War II, Gale, 1982.
Dukore, Bernard F., Where Laughter Stops: Pinter's Tragi-Comedy, Columbia, MO, 1977.
Esslin, Martin, The Peopled Wounded: The Plays of Harold Pinter, London, 1970.
Esslin, Martin, Pinter the Playwright, Methuen, 1984.
Gale, Steven H., Butter's Going Up: A Critical Analysis of HaroldPinter's Plays, Durham, NC, 1977.
------, Harold Pinter: The Films, Boston, 2001.
Ganz, Arthur, editor, Pinter: A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs, NH, 1972.
Gordon, Lois, Stratagems to Uncover Nakedness: The Dramas of Harold Pinter, Columbia, MO, 1969.
Gussow, Mel, Conversations with Pinter, Limelight Editions (New York), 1994.
Hayman, Ronald, Harold Pinter, London, 1968.
Hollis, James H., Harold Pinter, Carbondale, IL, 1970.
Kerr, Walter, Harold Pinter, Columbia University (New York), 1967.
Klein, Joanne, Making Pictures: The Pinter Screenplay, Columbus, OH, 1985.
Knowles, Ronald, Understanding Harold Pinter, University of SouthCarolina Press (Columbia), 1995.
Naismith, Bill, Harold Pinter --The Caretaker, The Birthday Party, TheHomecoming , London, 2000.
Peacock, D. Keith, Harold Pinter and the New British Theatre, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1997.
Prentice, Penelope, The Pinter Ethic--The Erotic Aesthetic, Garland Publishing, 2000.
Quigley, Austin E., The Pinter Problem, Princeton, NJ, 1975.
Raby, Peter, The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter, Cambridge,2001.
Regal, Martin, Harold Pinter: A Question of Timing, Macmillan Press (New York), 1995.
Sykes, Arlene, Harold Pinter, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 1970.
Taylor, John Russell, Harold Pinter, London, 1969.
Trussler, Simon, The Plays of Harold Pinter, London, 1973.

Periodicals:

American Film, .October, 1990
Economist, pp. 84-85.September 9, 1995
Literature/Film Quarterly, .June 4, 1986
New Yorker, pp. 37-38.October 2, 1995
New York Times, .December 30, 1979

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