Tom Stoppard Short Biographical Notes

TOM STOPPARD was born Thomas Straussler on 3 July 1937 in Zlin, Czechoslovakia. He was the second son of a doctor employed by the Bata shoe company. In 1939, the family left Czechoslovakia and the German invasion and settled in Singapore. Mrs Straussler and her children were evacuated to India by the British, but Dr Straussler remained in Singapore and was killed by the Japanese. Mrs Straussler married Kenneth Stoppard, a major in the British Army.

In 1946, the family moved to Bristol and Tom went to a public school in Yorkshire. In 1954 he became a reporter on the Western Daily Press . He became a freelance writer in 1960 and wrote his first play, A Walk on Water which was later staged in 1968 as Enter a Free Man. He wrote a number of radio and television plays and also became a theatre critic for Scene magazine.

He married first in 1965 and had two sons. That same year, his novel Lord Malquist and Mr Moon was published. In 1967, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead was first produced on the Edinburgh fringe and later transferred to the National Theatre, winning the Evening Standard drama award.

In 1972 he divorced, marrying Miriam Moore-Robinson (from whom he has subsequently separated). They had two sons. His play Jumpers was produced at the National.

Subsequent plays include Travesties, 1974; Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, 1977, with music by Andre Previn; Night and Day, 1978; The Real Thing, 1978; and Hapgood, 1988. He has also directed a film version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.