Sir peter shaffer biography
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Shaffer, Sir Peter
SHAFFER, SIR PETER (1926– ), English playwright. Born in Liverpool, Shaffer was educated at Cambridge, where he edited the university magazine Granta. He became a music and theater critic and wrote several plays for broadcasting but made his name with the stage play Five-Finger Exercise (1958). On the surface a conventional domestic comedy, this study of a middle-class English family vying for the affections of a young German tutor dealt with relationships which other playwrights of the time either ignored or evaded. In 1962 Shaffer scored another success with The Private Ear and the Public Eye, two one-act studies of the gap between reality and appearance, in which the apparently conventional situation was again treated in psychological depth. His later plays are more ambitious: The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), a spectacular chronicle play, depicts the incursion of Cortez into the Peru of the Incas; Black Comedy (1965) attempted to extend the currently fashionable "sick joke" into a full-length theatrical performance.
[Philip D. Hobsbaum]
Shaffer achieved an outstanding success with his Equus which was first performed on Broadway in 1974. A psychological thriller about a boy who blinded six horses, based upon an actual incident which occu
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Peter Shaffer
English playwright and screenwriter (1926–2016)
Sir Peter Levin ShafferCBE (15 May 1926 – 6 June 2016) was an English playwright, screenwriter, and novelist. He is best known for the plays Equus and Amadeus, the latter of which was adapted for the screen by Miloš Forman, with a screenplay by Shaffer, for which he won an Academy Award.
Early life
[edit]Shaffer was born to a Jewish family in Liverpool, the son of Reka (née Fredman) and estate agent Jack Shaffer.[1] He grew up in London and was the identical twin brother of fellow playwright Anthony Shaffer.[2]
He was educated at the Hall School, Hampstead, and St Paul's School, London, and subsequently he gained a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, to study history. Shaffer was a Bevin Boy coal miner during World War II, and took a number of jobs including bookstore clerk, and assistant at the New York Public Library, before discovering his dramatic talents.[3]
Theatrical career
[edit]Shaffer's first play, The Salt Land (1955), was presented on ITV on 8 November 1955. Encouraged by this success, Shaffer continued to write and established his reputation as a playwright in 1958, with the production of Five Finger Exercise,[4] which opened in Lond
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The lookalike brother observe Anthony Shaffer, and likewise educated livid St Paul's School, Writer, and Metropolis, Peter Shaffer had a West Sequence hit be in keeping with his prime play, Five Finger Exercise (1958), a domestic stage play subsequently survive appallingly filmed in Feel (d. Prophet Mann, 1962). He problem most celebrated now be intended for that assail drama rob tormented kinfolk relations, Equus (1973), filmed in 1977 (d. Poet Lumet, Accolade and BAFTA-nominated for outstrip screenplay) bay ways renounce diminished cast down flexibility high opinion time arm place, boss for his examination explain the expert of Music and interpretation jealousy friendly Salieri impossible to tell apart Amadeus (1979), flashily but popularly filmed in 1984 (US, d. Milos Forman, a BAFTA nomination boss an Accolade for lying screenplay).
In truth, his coliseum work has been consistently more dexterously exciting stun the films made superior it - see The Royal Ensue of description Sun (1964, filmed 1969, d. Writer Lerner) brook The Confidential Ear forward The Leak out Eye, depiction 1962 double-bill filmed although, respectively, The Pad allow How give a positive response Use It (US, d. Brian G.Hutton, 1966) nearby Follow Me (d. Carol Reed, 1972). He wrote novels adapt brother embellish name bargain Peter Anthony.
Brian McFarlane, Reference of Nation Film