Photo: Jack de Nijs for Anefo / CC0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Harold Pinter is, for my money, one of the most important playwrights of the last century. He won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, and his work gave us a whole adjective, Pinteresque, for menace lurking under everyday silence. The Birthday Party, The Caretaker and The Homecoming weaponise the pause like no one before him. He died on Christmas Eve 2008, but his influence is everywhere theatre and screenwriting still flinch at unspoken tension. I'm endlessly drawn to writers who understand that what goes unsaid frightens us more than any speech ever could.
Overview
Harold Pinter (; 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.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Harold Pinter
- Name (Japanese)
- ハロルド・ピンター
- Reading
- はろるど・ぴんたー
- Born
- October 10, 1930 – December 24, 2008
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Libra / Horse
- Origin
- London, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- playwright / actor / film director / screenwriter / writer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature
- Knight of the Legion of Honour
- Laurence Olivier Awards
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire
- Hermann Kesten Prize
- 2005 Franz Kafka Prize
- 1995 America Award in Literature
- Sretenje Order, 1st class
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | The Room | — | |
| Notable work | The Birthday Party | — | |
| Notable work | The Dumb Waiter | — | |
| Notable work | The Caretaker | — |
6. Links
Playwright — see all → · Actor — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.