Harold Pinter, 1930-2008

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Playwright Harold Pinter died Wednesday in London after battling cancer of the esophagus as well as pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease.

Although Pinter is best known as a playwright, he was trained as an actor and performed in plays, movies and teleplays throughout his career. Along with some 30 plays, he wrote more than 20 screenplays, including a number of his own works, such as ‘The Caretaker’ (1963) and ‘Betrayal’(1983). He wrote other screenplays based on popular novels, among them ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ (1981), from the novel by John Fowles, and ‘The Last Tycoon’ (1976), based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel.

Pinter was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005, but his illness left him unable to travel from London to Stockholm in December 2005 for the Nobel presentation. He sent a videotaped speech that was included in the ceremony.

Jan. 17, 2007 photo of Pinter, wearing the French Legion d’honneur award. Credit: Associated Press.