Harold Pinter (1930 - 2008)

Mr Harold Pinter (Male)

Nationality: British

Author

Born: 10 October 1930

Died: 24 December 2008

Playwright, director, actor, screenwriter and essayist, Harold Pinter was born on 10 October 1930 in Hackney, East London. He was the only son of Frances (née Moskowitz) and Jack Pinter, a Jewish dressmaker.

He married Vivien Merchant in 1956. They had a son together, Daniel, born in 1958. They were separated in the 1970s, and divorced in 1980, when Pinter married the writer Antonia Fraser, with whom he lived in Holland Park, London, until his death in 2008.
Pinter recalled a happy childhood, though he was evacuated from London during World War Two to Cornwall, and later shorter stays in Reading and Yorkshire. He was brought up in the Jewish faith, and studied for his Bar Mitzvah at the Lea Bridge Road shul in 1943, but indicated to his parents that he would not participate further in the religion in 1945. He was educated at the Hackney Downs Boys’ Grammar School, where he established what would be lifetime friendships with Henry Woolf, Mick Goldstein and others of a group remembered as ‘The Hackney Gang’. The schoolmaster Joseph Brearley had a profound impact on Pinter, and the two became friends. Brearley introduced Pinter to renaissance literature and cast him in his first acting roles, in the school plays Macbeth in 1947 and Romeo and Juliet in 1948.

After school, Pinter enrolled for a year at RADA in 1948, but was disenchanted with the working methods of the establishment. He later continued his formal training for two terms at Central School of Speech and Drama in 1951. He got his first steady work as an actor in Anew McMaster’s repertory company, touring Ireland in the early 1950s before joining Donald Wolfit’s company at the King’s Theatre, Hammersmith in 1953 for a season.

In 1957, Woolf asked if Pinter might write a play for him to perform at University in Bristol, where Woolf was studying for an MA in Drama. Pinter responded with The Room. He began working on The Birthday Party later that year, which was performed in London in 1958, though it ran for less than a week. He received commissions to write for the BBC Third Programme, and the radio plays A Slight Ache and A Night Out were broadcast in 1958 and 1960 respectively. His play The Caretaker, which ran for most of the year in 1960, established his name on the London stage and his fame was consolidated by a string of television productions in the early 1960s: A Night Out (1960), Night School (1960), The Collection (1961) and The Lover (1963). In 1963, his first film, as screenplay writer and adaptor, was released (The Servant) initiating a a collaboration with director Joseph Losey which was to produce two other acclaimed films in Accident (1967) and The Go-Between (1969).

His reputation as a writer of uncompromising and challenging drama was consolidated with The Homecoming in 1965 and Old Times in 1971, both directed by Peter Hall and premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the 1970s he became an associate director of the National Theatre, where his plays No Man’s Land (1974) and Betrayal (1978) were premièred, both again directed by Peter Hall.

In the 1980s and 1990s he adopted the public role of political commentator, while turning to more overt political situations in his plays One for the Road (1984), Mountain Language (1988) and Party Time (1991).

He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005. The award ceremony speech described his legacy: 'Between the lines of unresolved threats, it roils and stings. What we hear are signals for everything we do not hear. The abyss under chat, the unwillingness to communicate other than superficially, the need to rule and mislead, the suffocating sensation of accidents bubbling under the quotidian, the nervous perception that a dangerous story has been censored – all this vibrates through Pinter’s drama.'

Pinter died on 24 December 2008, succumbing to cancer at the age of 78. He left a legacy of twenty-nine dramatic works, numerous sketches, twenty-two screenplays and a significant body of poetry and prose writings, in addition to his one novel. His works are published by Faber and Faber in the UK and Grove Atlantic in the USA.

Training and Education

Secondary education

Hackney Downs Grammar School (Training & Education | Est. 1876)

Pinter attended the Hackney Downs Boys' Grammar School between 1944 and 1948.

Drama school

The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Training & Education | Est. 1906)

62-64 Eton Ave, London NW3 3HY, England

Known at that time as the Central School of Speech and Drama, Pinter spent two terms here between January and July 1951. See Michael Billington, Harold Pinter, 2nd edn (London: Faber and Faber, 2007) p. 31.

Drama school

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) (Training & Education | Est. 1904)

62-64 Gower St, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 6ED, England

Pinter joined RADA for a year in the autumn of 1948, but did not enjoy the ethos of the place. See Michael Billington, Harold Pinter, 2nd edn (London: Faber and Faber, 2007) pp. 20-1.

Other Names

David Baron (Stage name)

Productions

Focus on Libraries (1950)

Creative | Presenter

Notes:

Focus on Football Pools (1950)

Creative | Presenter

Notes:

One Man's City - Leeds (1951)

Creative | Narrator

Notes:

Dickens Goes to Yorkshire (1951)

Creative | Narrator

Notes:

Mr Punch Passes By (1951)

Creative | Narrator

Notes: As David Baron.

The Birthday Party (Birmingham - Leicester) (1959)

Creative | Director

Notes: Pinter’s debut as a director.

The Birthday Party (Tower Theatre) (1959)

Creative | Director

Notes: Actor Brenda Plumley recollected Pinter directing alongside Kay Gardner (Interview, Theatre Archive Project).

Monitor (1960)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Room (Hampstead Theatre Club-Royal Court) (1960)

Creative | Director

Notes: Only at the Hampstead.

People Today (1960)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

In Town Tonight (1960)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes: Unknown which regular presenter interviewed Pinter.

Interview with Harold Pinter (1960)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Talking of Theatre (1961)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Wednesday Magzine (1961)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Personal Anthology (1961)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Tonight (1961)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes: 'participant'

London Mirror (1961)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Collection (Stage Premiere: Aldwych Theatre) (1962)

Creative | Director

Notes: co-directed with Peter Hall

View (1962)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Lover (Stage Premiere: Arts Theatre) (1963)

Creative | Director

Notes:

On Films (1963)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Caretaker (1963)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

New Comment (1963)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Servant (1963)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Dwarfs (Stage Premiere: Arts Theatre) (1963)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Tea Party (1964)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

The Pumpkin Eater (1964)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Birthday Party (Aldwych) (1964)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Desert Island Discs (1965)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Tempo - 'Profile No. 1: Harold Pinter' (1965)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Thirties in Britain (1965)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Traces of an Old Fire (1966)

Creative | Introduction

Notes:

The Quiller Memorandum (1966)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Lively Arts (1966)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Lively Arts (1967)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Dick Emery Show (1967)

Creative | Script

Notes:

Accident (1967)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Man in the Glass Booth (St Martin's Theatre - Royale Theatre) (1967)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Birthday Party (1968)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Tribute to Sir Donald Wolfit (1969)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Pinter People (1969)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Line-Up (1969)

Creative | Interviewer

Notes:

Personal Anthology (1970)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Exiles (Mermaid - Aldwych) (1970)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Lines from My Grandfather's Forehead (1971)

Creative | Sketch writer

Notes:

Butley (1971)

Creative | Director

Notes: James Hammerstein directed the transfer to Broadway

Lessness (1971)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

The Go-Between (1971)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Parkinson (1971)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

But Seriously - It's Sheila Hancock (1973)

Creative | Sketch writer

Notes:

The Homecoming (1973)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Butley (1974)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Next of Kin (1974)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Otherwise Engaged (1975)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Innocents (1976)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Blithe Spirit (1976)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Last Tycoon (1976)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Langrishe, Go Down (1978)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Rear Column (1978)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The South Bank Show (1978)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Close of Play (1979)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Beryl Reid (1979)

Creative | Script

Notes:

The Hothouse (Premiere: Hampstead Theatre) (1980)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Beckett and Company (1980)

Creative | Contributor

Notes:

The Rear Column (1980)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Incident at Tulse Hill (1981)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Quartermaine's Terms (1981)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Hothouse (1982)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Trojan War Will Not Take Place (1983)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Noel Coward: A Private Life (1983)

Creative | Contributor

Notes:

Precisely (Premiere: Apollo Victoria Theatre) (1983)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Betrayal (1983)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

One for the Road (Premiere: Lyric Hammersmith) (1984)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Common Pursuit (1984)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Victoria Station (Lyric Hammersmith) (1984)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Players (1985)

Creative | Narrator

Notes: Pinter also contributed to the script.

Sweet Bird of Youth (1985)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Saturday Review (1985)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Circe and Bravo (1986)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Mountain Language (1988)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Omnibus: Harold Pinter (1988)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Mountain Language (Premiere: National Theatre) (1988)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Reunion (1989)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Heat of the Day (1990)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Handmaid's Tale (1990)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Samuel Beckett: 1906-89 (1990)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Harold Pinter at 60 - A Birthday Party (1990)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Test Match Special (1990)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Is Nothing Sacred? (1990)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

A Wake for Sam (1990)

Creative | Contributor

Notes:

The Comfort of Strangers (1990)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

The Dwarfs [extract] (1990)

Creative | Script Editor

Notes: And reader.

Vanilla (1990)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The New World Order (Premiere: Royal Court)* (1991)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Mountain Language (Almeida) (1991)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Party Time (Premiere: Almeida Theatre) (1991)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Caretaker (Newcastle - Birmingham - Bath - London) (1991)

Creative | Director

Notes:

A Sad State of Freedom (1991)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Party Time (1992)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Remains of the Day (1993)

Creative | Screenplay (uncredited)

Notes:

The Trial (1993)

Creative | Screenplay

Notes:

Oleanna (1993)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Landscape (Gate, Dublin - Cottesloe)* (1994)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Omnibus - Gielgud: Scenes from Nine Decades (1994)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Mountain Language (Cardiff Book Festival) (1994)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Landscape (1995)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Taking Sides (1995)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Twelve Angry Men (1996)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Ashes to Ashes (UK Premiere: Ambassadors Theatre) (revival at Pinter Festival) (1996)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Envy of the World (1996)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Face to Face (1997)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Life Support (1997)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Look Europe! (1997)

Production | Producer

Notes:

I Had to Go Sick (1998)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

The South Bank Show (1998)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Brecht Centenary 2 (1998)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Old Times (1998)

Production | Reader of stage directions

Notes:

The Brecht Centenary 1 (1998)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

The Brecht Centenary 3 (1998)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

The Brecht Centenary 4 (1998)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

The Brecht Centenary 5 (1998)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Sport in Books 1 (1998)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Sport in Books 5 (1998)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

The Late Middle Classes (1999)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Counterblast (1999)

Creative | Contributor

Notes:

The Room (Almeida-The Lincoln Center Festival New York) (2000)

Creative | Director

Notes:

The Genius of Shakespeare (2000)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Celebration / The Lincoln Center Festival New York (Premiere: Almeida Theatre, Gate Theatre) (2000)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Changing Stages, episode 4 (2000)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Remembrance of Things Past (2000)

Creative | Adaptor of Script

Notes:

No Man's Land (Lyttelton Tour)* (2001)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Arena: Politics and Pinter (2002)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Arena: Harold Pinter (Part 2) (2002)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Arena: Harold Pinter (Part 1) (2002)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

New Grub Street Part 3 (2002)

Creative | Narrator

Notes:

New Grub Street Part 2 (2002)

Creative | Narrator

Notes:

New Grub Street Part 1 (2002)

Creative | Narrator

Notes:

The Dwarfs (Premiere: Tricycle Theatre) (2003)

Creative | Author (original novel)

Notes:

The Old Masters (2004)

Creative | Director

Notes:

Art, Truth and Politics (2005)

Creative | Reader

Notes:

Front Row (2005)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Newsnight Review (2006)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Sunday AM (2007)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Archive on 4: Pinter on Air (2009)

Creative | Interviewee

Notes:

Appears In

Macbeth (Hackney Downs Grammar School) (1947)

Macbeth (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Pinter's first acting role, in this high school production.

Performer

Romeo and Juliet (Hackney Downs Grammar School) (1948)

Romeo (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

King Henry VIII (1951)

Abergavenny (King Henry VIII) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

Ninety Sail (1954)

First Offical (Ninety Sail) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

Operation Leopard (1954)

Member of Parliament (Operation Leopard) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

Operation Leopard (1954)

Orderly Room Clerk (Operation Leopard) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

Operation Leopard (1954)

Harry (Operation Leopard) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

The Three Musketeers (1954)

Extra (Three Musketeers) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 6: The Final Ordeal (1958)

Cartwright (Hound of the Baskervilles) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

The Hound of the Baskervilles Part 2: Sir Henry Baskerville (1958)

Cartwright (Hound of the Baskervilles) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

The Infamous John Friend (Episode 7) (1959)

Lord Combleigh (The Infamous John Friend) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

The Infamous John Friend (Episode 2) (1959)

Lord Combleigh (The Infamous John Friend) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

The Infamous John Friend (Episode 1) (1959)

Lord Combleigh (The Infamous John Friend) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

The Infamous John Friend (Episode 2) (1959)

Lord Combleigh (The Infamous John Friend) (Age: Not Specified)

As David Baron.

Performer

A Night Out (1960)

Seeley (Age: Not specified, Male)

Listed under the name 'David Baron'.

Performer

The Birthday Party (Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham) (1960)

Goldberg (Age: fifties, Male)

As ‘David Baron’. Possibly Pinter’s final use of his stage name.

Performer

The Caretaker (Premiere: Arts Theatre) (1960)

Mick (Age: late twenties, Male)

Pinter took over for Alan Bates while the latter was fulfilling his contract to film his part in Whistle Down the Wind (Bryan Forbes, 1961). Pinter performed the role for five weeks from 20 February 1961.

Aston's brother

Performer

A Night Out (1960)

Seeley (Age: Not specified, Male)

Pinter is listed in the cast under the stage-name David Baron.

Performer

Victims of Duty (1961)

The Detective (Victims of Duty) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

Two Mothers (1961)

Narrator (Two Mothers) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

The Collection (1962)

Harry (Age: forties, Male)

Performer

The Servant (1963)

Society Man (The Servant) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

The Caretaker (1963)

Man (The Caretaker - film) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

In Camera (1964)

Joseph Garcin (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Dialogue for Three (1964)

1st Man (Age: Not specified, Male)

Source: Harold Pinter: Plays 3 [1997], p. 233

Performer

Interview (1964)

Interviewer (Age: Not specified)

Appears in the sketch Interview (pub. 1961).

Performer

That's Your Trouble (1964)

B (That's Your Trouble) (Age: Not specified, Male)

Performer

Last to Go (1964)

Barman (Last to Go) (Age: Not specified, Male)

Unnamed character from 'Last to Go'

Performer

Accident (1967)

Bell (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

The Basement (1967)

Stott (Age: Not specified, Male)

Performer

Pinter People (1969)

Mr Fibbs (Age: Not specified, Male)

Character listed as 'voice'

Performer

Pinter People (1969)

Barman (Last to Go) (Age: Not specified, Male)

Character listed as 'voice'

Unnamed character from 'Last to Go'

Performer

The Homecoming (Watford Palace Theatre) (1969)

Lenny (Age: early thirties, Male)

Performer

The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)

Steven Hench (The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

Monologue (1975)

Man (Monologue) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Rogue Male (1976)

Saul Abrahams (Rogue Male) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

Rough for Radio (1976)

Animator (Rough for Radio) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

Two Plays (1977)

Ferdinand Vanek (Two Plays) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

Langrishe, Go Down (1978)

Barry Shannon (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Turtle Diary (1985)

Man In Bookshop (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Players (1985)

Narrator (Players) (Age: Not Specified)

Performer

The Birthday Party (1987)

Goldberg (Age: fifties, Male)

Performer

Betrayal (1990)

Robert (Betrayal) (Age: Not specified, Male)

Performer

A Kind of Alaska (1990)

Hornby (Age: early sixties, Male)

Performer

No Man's Land (Almeida) (1992)

Hirst (Age: sixties, Male)

Performer

The Hothouse (Chichester- Bath- London tour) (1995)

Roote (Age: fifties, Male)

Performer

Look Europe! (1997)

Tramp (Look Europe!) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Mojo (1997)

Sam Ross (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Breaking the Code (1997)

John Smith (Breaking the Code) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

The Collection / 3 by Harold Pinter (Donmar Warehouse Tour) (1998)

Harry (Age: forties, Male)

Performer

Mansfield Park (1999)

Sir Thomas Bertram (Mansfield Park) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Catastrophe (2000)

Director (Catastrophe) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

A Slight Ache (2000)

Edward (Age: Not specified, Male)

Performer

Moonlight (2000)

Andy (Age: fifties, Male)

Performer

One for the Road / The Lincoln Center Festival New York (New Ambassadors) (2001)

Nicolas (Age: forties, Male)

Performer

Wit (TV Film) (2001)

Mr Bearing (Vivian's Father) (Wit) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

The Tailor of Panama (2001)

Uncle Benny (The Tailor of Panama) (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

Press Conference / Sketches I and II (Lyttleton Theatre) (2002)

Minister, The (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

One for the Road (2002)

Nicolas (Age: forties, Male)

Performer

Voices (2005)

Nicolas (Age: forties, Male)

There were no character names given in the listings or descriptions of this broadcast. These are identified characters from the original plays.

Performer

Apart from That (2006)

Lake (Age: Not specified, Male)

Performer

Apart from That (2006)

Lake (Age: Not specified, Male)

Performer

Krapp's Last Tape (2006)

Krapp (Age: old, Male)

'a wearish old man' (Krapp's Last Tape, p. X).

Performer

Sleuth (2007)

Man On TV (Age: Not Specified, Male)

Performer

The Homecoming (2007)

Max (Age: 70, Male)

Performer

Happy Birthday, Harold (Harold Pinter Theatre) (2018)

Reader (Age: Not Specified)

An audio recording of pinter reading ‘Death’ was played between the extract from The Caretaker and the reading of ‘Arthur Miller’s Socks’.

Performer

Happy Birthday, Harold (Harold Pinter Theatre) (2018)

Reader (Age: Not Specified)

An audio recording of Pinter reading ‘It is Here (For A)’’ was played between the reading of ‘To My Wife’ and the interval.

Performer

Happy Birthday, Harold (Harold Pinter Theatre) (2018)

Reader (Age: Not Specified)

An audio recording of Pinter reading ‘The Disappeared’ was played between the readings of ‘House of Commons Speech’ and ‘The Old Days’

Performer

Happy Birthday, Harold (Harold Pinter Theatre) (2018)

Reader (Age: Not Specified)

An audio recording of Pinter reading ‘American Football’ was played the readings of ‘God Bless America’ and ‘The Bombs’

Performer

Happy Birthday, Harold (Harold Pinter Theatre) (2018)

Reader (Age: Not Specified)

An audio recording of Pinter reading ‘Joseph Brearley 1909-1977 (Teacher of English)’ was played between the extract from Betrayal and the reading of ‘The Coast’

Performer

Linked People

Vivien Merchant (1929 - 1982)

Relationship: Spouse

Harold married Vivien Merchant on 14 September 1956, in Bournemouth. They had one child, Daniel, born in 1958. They divorced in 1980.

Antonia Fraser (1932)

Relationship: Spouse

Harold met Antonia in 1975, when their relationship began. They married in 1980, and lived together in her Holland Park home.

Jimmy Wax (1911 - 1983)

Relationship: Agent

Wax was Pinter's first agent, from 1957 to 1983, when he died.

Judy Daish

Relationship: Agent

Daish was Pinter's agent from 1983, following the death of Jimmy Wax. Judy Daish Associates administers the Estate of Harold Pinter.

Linked Awards

CBE

11 June 1966

Pinter was named in the Queen's 1996 Birthday Honours list, announced on 11 June 1966.

Shakespeare Prize

1970

Awarded by the Hamburg Alfred Toepfer Foundation in 1937, 1938 and between 1967 and 2006.

European Prize for Literature

1973

Pirandello Prize

1980

The Premio Nazionale di Teatro Luigi Pirandello was established in Palermo, Italy, in 1966. Pinter won the international prize in 1980 (VIII edizione 1978/80).

Giles Cooper Award

1981

Sponsored by the BBC and Methuen between 1978 and 1991, this award was for BBC radio drama. Pinter won in 1981 for the play Family Voices.

Order of Merit (Chile)

1992

America Award in Literature

1995

First awarded in 1994, the America Award for Literature is a lifetime achievement literary award for non-US writers, sponsored by the Contemporary Arts Educational Project, Inc. Pinter was the second recipient of the award.

David Cohen British Literature Prize

1995

The Laurence Olivier Award

1996

Pinter won the Society's Special Award for lifetime achievement in the theatre.

Molière d'honneur

1997

A lifetime achievement recognition award.

Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence

1997

BAFTA

1997

Harold Pinter won the Academy Fellowship award in 1997 for his contribution to the screen. The Fellowship has been awarded since 1971.

Companion of Literature

1998

Awarded by the Royal Society of Literature. Inaugurated in 1961, the award is held by up to ten writers at any one time.

Critics' Circle Theatre Award

2000

Pinter won the The Critics' Circle Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts in 2000, which took the form of an engraved crystal rose bowl. The award has been given out each year since 1988.

Brianza Poetry Prize

15 September 2000

Pinter accepted the Premio Letterario Brianza in September 2000 Milan, Italy, according to his diaries.

South Bank Show Award

2001

The Outstanding Achievement in the Arts Award. The award has been known as the South Bank Show Sky Award since 2010.

Golden PEN Award

2001

Known at the time of receipt by Pinter as the S.T. Dupont Golden Pen Award. The award was established in 1993 by English PEN (Poets, Essayists, Novelists) given annually to a British writer for 'a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature'. There have been no awards since 2013.

Premio Fiesole ai Maestri del Cinema

2001

The Fiesole 'Masters of Cinema' Award was established in 1966.

World Leaders Award

October 2001

Presented to Pinter at an event within a two-week 'Harold Pinter Homage' at the World Leaders Festival of Creative Genius, held from 24 September to 30 October 2001, at the Harbourfront Centre, in Toronto, Canada.

Hermann Kesten Prize

2001

A German literary prize, worth €10,000, awarded by German PEN since 1985.

Companion of Honour

15 June 2002

For services to literature. In December 2017, Pinter's widow Lady Antonia Fraser also received this award.

Evening Standard Award

2005

Special award.

Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry

2005

Franz Kafka Prize

2005

Nobel Prize for Literature

7 December 2005

The announcement that Pinter had won the Nobel prize for Literature was made on 13 October 2005. The ceremony, which he was too ill to attend, took place on 7 December that year. His Nobel Lecture was pre-recorded and broadcast at the ceremony in Stockholm.

European Theatre Prize

11 March 2006

Harold Pinter was winner of the X edition of the prize, and received the award at a ceremony in Turin in March 2006.

Serbian Foundation Prize

2006

Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur

17 January 2007

Awarded to Pinter by the then French prime minister, Dominic de Villepin at the French Embassy in London.

Resources

BBC 4 Front Row Interview (Audio)

Type: Interview

External Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b00gy71c

Front Row, BBC Radio 4, 26 December 2008, a special broadcast in response to the recent death of Harold Pinter, features an interview by Mark Lawson, originally broadcast in 2005.

Theatre Archive Project: 2008 Interview with Harry Burton (Audio)

Type: Interview

External Link: https://sounds.bl.uk/Arts-literature-and-performance/Theatre-Archive-Project/024M-C0927X0343XX-0001V0

Interview of Harold Pinter by Harry Burton from The Golden Generation Conference, a two day conference held at The British Library partner with University of Sheffield in the AHRC funded Theatre Archive Project, to discuss British Theatre 1945-68. Recorded 8 September 2008. Pinter's last interview before his death.

Harold Pinter on Desert Island Discs (URL)

Type: Website

External Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y43j

Desert Island Discs is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It has been running since 1942. Each week a guest chooses eight recordings, a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be a castaway on a desert island. This is Pinter's selection, from his appearance in 1965.

Working with Pinter (Video)

Type: DVD

External Link: https://www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/product/working-with-pinter/

A 2007 film by Harry Burton, which includes an extensive interview with Harold Pinter, and unique footage of Pinter participating in rehearsals of extracts of his works.

'I've written 29 damn plays. Isn't that enough?', interview with Michael Billington, The Guardian, 14 March 2006 (URL)

Type: Interview

External Link: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/mar/14/theatre.stage

'I've written 29 damn plays. Isn't that enough?', The Guardian, 14 March 2006.

Soundcloud: Pinter reading from Betrayal and The Caretaker: 1998 (Audio)

Type: Social media

External Link: https://soundcloud.com/rsl/harold-pinter-and-d-j-enright

A Soundcloud recording of Harold Pinter reading from two of his plays on the occasion of his being awarded the Companion of Honour by the Royal Society of Literature in 1998. Pinter's section begins at the 27:29 mark He reads from Betrayal 28:00 to 36:06 and The Caretaker 36:07 to 41:00.

Soundcloud: Harold Pinter in 1964 reading a selection of his prose and poetry (Audio)

Type: Social media

External Link: https://soundcloud.com/92y/harold-pinter

A Soundcloud of Harold Pinter reading some of his prose and poetry. New York, 1964. He gives dates to these as he reads them, though the dates given here are those given in their publications. He reads the prose short story Tea Party (1963) between 2:25 to 15:20 and then some poems: New Year in the Midlands (1950) 16:40 to 18:43; A Glass at Midnight (1951) 18:45 to 19:55; You in the Night (c. 1952 ) 19:55 to 20:40; The Drama in April (1952) 20:50 to 21:45; The Anaesthetist's Pin (1952) 21:45 to 22:26; Jig (1952) 22:35 to 23:20; Episode (1951) 23:20 to 27:50; Afternoon (1957) 27:55 to 29:10; The Error of Alarm (1956) 29:10 to 30:!5; the Table (1963) 30:15 to 31:15. The Black and White (prose) (1954-5) 31:15 to 37:30; The Examination (1955) 37:30 to 52:30. Pinter then answers questions submitted by the audience.