Ronald Harwood

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Sir Ronald Harwood

Harwood was born Ronald Horwitz in Cape Town, in what was then the Union of South Africa, the son of Isobel (née Pepper) and Isaac Horwitz.^[1] After attending Sea Point High School,^[2] Harwood moved from Cape Town to London in 1951 to pursue a career in the theatre. He changed his surname from Horwitz to Harwood after an English master told him it was too foreign and too Jewish for a stage actor.^[3]

After training for the stage at the

In 1960, Harwood began a career as a writer and published his first novel, All the Same Shadows in 1961, the screenplay for Private Potter (1962) from his television drama, and the stage play, March Hares in 1964. Harwood continued at a prolific pace penning more than 21 stage plays, and 10 books. He also created more than 16 screen plays, but seldom wrote original material directly for the screen, usually acting as an adapter, sometimes of his own work (The Dresser).

One of the recurring themes in Harwood's work was his fascination with the stage, its performing artists and artisans, as displayed in The Dresser, After the Lions (about

Harwood also had a strong interest in the

Harwood also wrote the screenplay for the films The Browning Version (1994) with Albert Finney, Being Julia (2004) with Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons, and Roman Polanski's version of Oliver Twist (2005) with Ben Kingsley.

He won an

Harwood was president of the English PEN Club from 1989 to 1993, and of PEN International from 1993 to 1997. He was chairman of the Royal Society of Literature from 2001 to 2004, and was president of the Royal Literary Fund from 2005. He was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1974, Knight (Chevalier) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1996, and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1999.

In 2003, he was appointed a member at the Department of Language and Literature of the

National Life Stories conducted an oral history interview (C1173/02) with Harwood in 2005–2007 for its An Oral History of Theatre Design collection held by the British Library.^[10] The British Library also acquired the papers of Ronald Harwood in 2004 consisting of manuscripts and papers, correspondence, and press cuttings.^[11]

He was named chairman of the

In May 2017 an authorized biography of Harwood, Speak Well of Me by W. Sydney Robinson, was published by Oberon Books.

He attended the Seapoint Boys' High School in that area of Cape Town. He moved to England in 1951. In 1959, he married Natasha Riehle (1938–2013), a descendant of Russian nobility. They had three children: Antony (born 1960), Deborah (born 1963), and the composer Alexandra Harwood (born 1966).^[13]

The actor Sir Antony Sher was his first cousin, once removed.^[14] Harwood was the brother of South African dance critic Eve Borland.^[15]

Harwood died from natural causes at his home in Sussex on 8 September 2020, at age 85.^[16][17]

• March Hares (Liverpool, 1964)
• Country Matters (69 Theatre Company, Manchester, 1969)
• Her Majesty's Theatre
  , 1974)
• Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester and the Round House
  , London, 1977,
• A Family (
  Theatre Royal, Haymarket
  , 1978)
• The Dresser (The Royal Exchange, Manchester and Queen's Theatre, 1980; Duke of York's Theatre, 2005)^[18]
• After the Lions (The Royal Exchange, Manchester , 1982)
• Tramway Road (
  Lyric Hammersmith
  ,1984)
• The Deliberate Death of a Polish Priest (Almeida Theatre, 1985)
• Interpreters (Queen's Theatre, 1985)
• J J Farr (
  Phoenix Theatre
  , 1987)
• Ivanov, translation of Chekhov's play (Strand Theatre,1989)
• Another Time (Bath and Wyndham's Theatre,1989)
• Reflected Glory (Darlington and Vaudeville Theatre, 1992)
• Poison Pen, about the death of composer Peter Warlock (the Royal Exchange, Manchester, 1993))
• Taking Sides, about the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler (Minerva Theatre, Chichester,1995 and 2008; Duchess Theatre, 2009)
• The Handyman (Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 1996)
• Albery Theatre
  , 1999)
• Goodbye Kiss/Guests, double bill about the South African diaspora (Orange Tree Theatre, 2000)
• Mahler's Conversion (Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford and Aldwych Theatre, 2001)
• See U Next Tuesday, adaptation of Francis Veber's Diner de Cons (Gate Theatre, Dublin, 2002 and Albery Theatre, 2003)
• An English Tragedy, based on the true story of the British fascist John Amery (Palace Theatre Watford, 2008)
• Collaboration, based on the relationship between the composer Richard Strauss and the writer Stefan Zweig (Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 2008; Duchess Theatre, 2009)
• Taking Tea With Stalin ^{[dubious – discuss]}