Tom Stoppard, the Oscar-winning writer behind Shakespeare in loveHe has died at the age of 88.
His talent agency, United Agents, confirmed the news in a statement shared Saturday, saying he passed away peacefully at his home in Dorset, England.
“We are deeply saddened to announce that our beloved client and friend, Tom Stoppard, has passed away peacefully at his home in Dorset, surrounded by his family,” the agency said.
The statement remembered him for “his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his deep love of the English language.”
Born in 1937 in what is now the Czech Republic, Stoppard survived a childhood marked by war and loss. His family escaped to Singapore during World War II.
After eventually moving to England, he left school in his teens and devoted himself to writing. He once joked that, as a young student, “if I had been hit by a bus, I would have been one of the most ignorant corpses in existence.”
Stoppard rose to fame with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are deadand won numerous awards for his plays and screenplays.
Her biggest screen success came with the 1998 romantic drama. Shakespeare in lovewhich earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Speaking about the film in 1998, he shared that writing about Shakespeare meant using “a lot of inventive space,” adding that some of the story was “pure mischief.”
Throughout his career, he worked on film scripts including Brazil, empire of the sun and Ana Kareninawhile his works continued to garner critical praise well into his later years.
Stoppard described his writing process as almost instinctive, saying in 2019 that “all the good parts are subconscious.”
He hoped his work would endure for generations. “I aspire to write for posterity,” he once said. “I like the idea of them being part of the furniture.”
Tom Stoppard is survived by his wife and children.
