Tom Stoppard’s Followers (1,013)

Tom Stoppard

Born

in Zlín, Czech Republic

July 03, 1937

Died

November 29, 2025

Genre

Theatre

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Sir Tom Stoppard was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeel Sir Tom Stoppard was a Czech-born British playwright and screenwriter. He has written for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covers the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical thematics of society. Stoppard has been a playwright of the National Theatre and is one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He settled with his family in Britain after the war, in 1946, having spent the previous three years (1943–1946) in a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.

Stoppard's most prominent plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Night and Day (1978), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock 'n' Roll (2006) and Leopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays for Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012), as well as the HBO limited series Parade's End (2013). He directed the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), an adaptation of his own 1966 play, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as the leads.

He has received numerous awards and honours including an Academy Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". It was announced in June 2019 that Stoppard had written a new play, Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna. The play premiered in January 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. The play went on to win the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the 2022 Tony Award for Best Play. ...more

Combine Editions
Tom Stoppard’s books

Average rating: 4.02 · 152,842 ratings · 6,857 reviews · 148 distinct works • Similar authors

	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead 4.04 avg rating — 93,043 ratings — published 1967 — 127 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Arcadia 4.13 avg rating — 24,148 ratings — published 1993 — 52 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Real Thing 3.91 avg rating — 5,027 ratings — published 1982 — 55 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Travesties 3.93 avg rating — 3,357 ratings — published 1975 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Invention of Love 3.99 avg rating — 2,372 ratings — published 1997 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Real Inspector Hound 3.91 avg rating — 2,385 ratings — published 1968 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Real Inspector Hound and Other Plays really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2,292 ratings — published 1974 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rock 'n' Roll 3.73 avg rating — 1,550 ratings — published 2006 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Jumpers 3.69 avg rating — 1,428 ratings — published 1972 — 36 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Leopoldstadt 4.35 avg rating — 1,129 ratings — published 2020 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Tom Stoppard…

Series by Tom Stoppard

The Coast of Utopia (3 books)
by

Tom Stoppard

3.95 avg rating — 1,667 ratings

Quotes by Tom Stoppard (?)

“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

tags: stoppard

1194 likes

“It is a defect of God's humor that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.”
― Tom Stoppard, Arcadia

tags: lady-croom, love

599 likes

“Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else.”
― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

tags: attitude, chances, doors, entrance, exit, opportunities, passage, transition

513 likes

See all Tom Stoppard's quotes »

Polls

September 2024 Short Story/Novella Poll

A Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka

50 votes, 26.9%

The Touchstone by Edith Wharton

32 votes, 17.2%

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard

30 votes, 16.1%

Philomel Cottage: A Short Story by Agatha Christie

26 votes, 14.0%

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

24 votes, 12.9%

The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster

12 votes, 6.5%

Why I Live at the P.O. and Other Stories title story by Eudora Welty

12 votes, 6.5%

186 total votes

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Tom Stoppard’s Followers (1,013)

Tom Stoppard

Combine EditionsTom Stoppard’s books

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Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
Tom Stoppard’s books