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Full articleSir Ronald Harwood CBE FRSL (né Horwitz; 9 November 1934 – 8 September 2020) was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter whose career spanned novels, stage works, and film adaptations, with his screenplay for The Pianist (2002) earning him the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Born in Cape Town to Jewish parents, Harwood relocated to London in 1951 at age 16 to pursue acting, initially working as an understudy and later as personal dresser to actor Sir Donald Wolfit, experiences that informed his debut novel All the Same Shadows (1961) and plays exploring theatrical life. His breakthrough came with the play The Dresser (1980), a backstage drama depicting the bond between an aging Shakespearean actor and his devoted assistant amid World War II, which premiered in London, transferred to Broadway, and received two Tony Award nominations; Harwood later adapted it into an Oscar-nominated screenplay (1983). He garnered further Academy Award nominations for adapting The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) and directed by Julian Schnabel, based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir of locked-in syndrome, while his oeuvre often delved into historical survival, artistic perseverance, and moral complexity, as seen in works addressing apartheid opposition and free speech advocacy during his presidencies of English PEN (1989–1993) and PEN International (1993–1997).
In brief
Sir Ronald Harwood (né Horwitz; 9 November 1934 – 8 September 2020) was a South African-born British author, playwright, and screenwriter, best known for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser (for which he was nominated for an Oscar) and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007).
