Culture

Harold Pinter, Nobel-Winning Playwright, Dies at 78

by polylogue | December 25, 2008 at 08:04 am

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Noble Laureate Playwright Harold Pinter died on December 24 at the age of 78, according to the New York Times. The British playwright, the author of such plays as "Betrayal", "The Birthday Party", and "The Caretaker." He also penned screenplays, such as "The French Lieutenant's Woman and the "The Last Tycoon."

In the last few years of his life, Pinter was a loud voice against U.S. foreign policy and was an outspoken critic of the Iraq War.

He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005.

An actor, essayist, screenwriter, poet and director as well as a dramatist, Mr. Pinter was also publicly outspoken in his views on repression and censorship, at home and abroad. He used his Nobel acceptance speech to denounce American foreign policy, saying that the United States had not only lied to justify waging war against Iraq but that it had also “supported and in many cases engendered every right-wing military dictatorship” in the last 50 years.