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Everything about Ronald Harwood totally explained

Ronald Harwood CBE, (born November 9, 1934 in Cape Town, South Africa) is a writer, principally a playwright and screenwriter. He is the son of Isaac Horwitz and his wife Isobel (Pepper).
   He was educated at Seapoint Boys’ High School, Cape Town. He married Natasha Richie. The actor Sir Antony Sher is his cousin.

Theatre work

Harwood moved to London in 1951 to pursue a career in the theatre. After training for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he joined the Shakespeare Company of Sir Donald Wolfit, one of the last great actor-managers in Great Britain. From 1953 to 1958, Harwood was Sir Donald's personal dresser. He would later draw on this experience when writing his play, The Dresser, and he wrote the biography: Sir Donald Wolfit CBE: His life and work in the Unfashionable Theatre.
   In 1959, after leaving the Wolfit company. he joined the 59 Theatre Company for a season at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Writing career

In 1960, he started a new career as a writer and became quite prolific, penning novels, plays and non-fiction books. He also worked as a screenwriter, but seldom wrote original material directly for the screen, usually acting as an adapter, sometimes of his own work (notably The Dresser).

Playwright and Theatre historian

One of the recurring themes in Harwood's work is his fascination for the stage, its performing artists and artisans as displayed in the The Dresser, his plays, After the Lions (about Sarah Bernhardt), Another Time (a semi-autobiographical piece about a gifted South African pianist), Quartet (about ageing opera singers) and his non-fiction book All the World's a Stage, a general history of theatre.
   His plays include:
In February 2008 his play An English Tragedy, based on the true story of the British fascist John Amery, received its world premiere at the Palace Theatre Watford in a production directed by Di Trevis.

Screenwriter

Harwood also has a strong interest in World War II, as shown by the films Operation Daybreak, The Statement, The Pianist, and his play turned to film Taking Sides. Based on true stories, the two last films feature musicians as their main characters.
   He also wrote the screenplay for the films, The Browning Version (1994) with Albert Finney, Being Julia (2004) with Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons, and Roman Polanski's version of Oliver Twist (2005) with Ben Kingsley.
   He won an Academy Award for the script of The Pianist, having already been nominated for The Dresser in 1983. Harwood received his third Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2007 for his adaptation of the memoir by Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, for which he also won a BAFTA.

Recognition

Harwood was president of the English PEN Club from 1989 to 1993, and of International PEN from 1993 to 1997. He was Chairman of the Royal Society of Literature (2001 to 2004) and is President of the Royal Literary Fund (2005). He was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1974, Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters (1996) and Commander of the British Empire in 1999. In 2003 he was elected a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Language and Literature.

Selected Filmography

Screenplay, unless stated.
  • Australia (2008)
  • Love in the Time of Cholera (2007)
  • The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
  • Oliver Twist (2005)
  • Being Julia (2004)
  • The Statement (2003)
  • The Pianist (2002)
  • Taking Sides (2001)
  • Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)
  • The Browning Version (1994)
  • The Doctor and the Devils (1985) (from a script by Dylan Thomas)
  • The Dresser (1983) (Screenplay and Producer)
  • Operation Daybreak (1975)
  • One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1971)
  • Eyewitness (1970)
  • Private Potter (1962)

    Bibliography

  • All the Same Shadows (novel) Cape (1961)
  • George Washington September Sir! (novel) Avon (1961)
  • The Guilt Merchants (novel) Cape (1963)
  • The Girl in Melanie Klein (novel) Secker & Warburg (1969)
  • Sir Donald Wolfit: His Life and Work in the Unfashionable Theatre (biography) Secker & Warburg (1971) ISBN 0436191210)
  • Articles of Faith (novel - Winifred Holtby Prize) Secker & Warburg (1973) ISBN 0436191229
  • The Genoa Ferry (novel) Secker & Warburg (1976) ISBN 0436191237
  • César and Augusta (novel about the composer César Franck) Secker & Warburg (1978) ISBN 0436191199
  • One. Interior. Day. Adventures in the Film Trade, Secker & Warburg (1978) ISBN 0436191245
  • New Stories 3: An Arts Council Anthology (with Francis King) Hutchinson (1978) ISBN 0091332710
  • The Dresser (play) Grove Press (1981) ISBN 0394179366
  • A Night at the Theatre (editor), Methuen (1982) ISBN 0413499502
  • The Ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold (play) Amber Lane (1983) ISBN 0906399424
  • After the Lions (play) Amber Lane (1983) ISBN 0906399416
  • All the World's a Stage (theatre history), Secker & Warburg (1984) ISBN 0436191326
  • The Ages of Gielgud, an Actor at Eighty, Hodder & Stoughton (1984) ISBN 0340348283
  • Tramway Road (play) Amber Lane (1984) ISBN 0906399580
  • The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest (play) Amber Lane (1985) ISBN 0906399637
  • Interpreters (play) Amber Lane (1986) ISBN 090639967X
  • Mandela (a Channel Four book), Boxtree (1987) ISBN 1852832045
  • Dear Alec: Guinness at 75 (editor), Hodder & Stoughton (1989) ISBN 0340499540
  • Another Time (play) Amber Lane (1989) ISBN 090639998X
  • Reflected Glory (play) Faber (1992) ISBN 0571164633
  • The Collected Plays of Ronald Harwood, Faber (1993) ISBN 0571170013
  • The Faber Book of the Theatre (editor) Faber (1994) ISBN 0571164811
  • Harwood Plays: Two (Contemporary Classics), Faber (1995) ISBN 9001877427
  • The Handyman (play) Faber (1997) ISBN 0571190413
  • Quartet/Equally Divided (plays) Faber (1999) ISBN 0571200923)
  • Mahler's Conversion (play) Faber (2001) ISBN 9780571212316
  • The Pianist/Taking Sides (screenplays) Faber (2003) ISBN 0571212816
  • An English Tragedy (play) Faber (2006) ISBN 0571233287
  • Ronald Harwood's Adaptations: From Other Works Into Films, Guerilla Books (2007) ISBN 9780955494307Further Information

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