Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard, whose original name is Tom Straussler, was born on July 3, 1937 to Eugen Straussler and Martha Beckov in Czechoslovakia. He is a screenwriter and a playwright. However, in 1946, he and his family had to flee from there when Nazi invaded Czechoslovakia.

Before that, he was studying at Mount Hermon School, Darjeeling, India. His father died when he was four. A few years later, her mother remarried a British national, and the family shifted to Britain. However, his stepfather was a proud and arrogant man and would taunt Tom about how lucky he was to be living in England because of him.

While living in Britain, he attended Dolphin School, Nottinghamshire, and Pocklington School, East Riding, Yorkshire. However, Tom hated going to Pocklington. His hatred increased so much that he stopped going to the school at the age of seventeen and started to work for Western Daily Press as a journalist.

Tom also wrote for the radio. He worked there for four years until Bristol Evening World offered him a job. This job introduced him to the world of theatre, Peter O'Toole, and John Boorman.

While working for Bristol, he authored plays like A Walk on the Water, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Meet King Lear and much more. He would review interviews, magazines, and dramas. He, then, veered towards writing and write several books and produce stage shows like Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, Dirty Linen and New-Found-Land, and much more.

Most of his work reflects his views on topics like censorship, philosophy, political freedom, linguistics, and human rights. However, while he was working for Bristol, people wouldn't take him seriously, and he was more famous for his clothes and personal style rather than his writings.

He has won several prominent awards like the Evening Standard Award, Giles Cooper Award, Academy Awards, and much more. In 1999, he got inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. He also holds Honorary Doctor of Letters of University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Yale University.

In 1965, he married a nurse named Josie Ingle but divorced her after seven years of marriage. Tom then got hitched to Miriam Stern. He has four sons from both the relationships named Oliver, Ed, Will and Barnaby Stoppard. However, Miriam ended the union after Tom cheated on her with Felicity Kendal after twenty years of being together. In 2014, he wedded James Edward Alexander Rundell Guinness and Pauline Mander's daughter, Sabrina Guinness.