Harold Pinter, the distinguished and influential British playwright and screenwriter who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005, died on December 24 in London after waging a long battle against esophagus cancer. He was 78.

He was born in Hackney, a suburb of London's East End on October 10, 1930. The only child of a Jewish tailor, he grew up in a tough neighborhood and at times fought off anti-Semetic taunts in his youth - an experience that many critics site as an essential influence on his work. He eventually channeled much of his energy into acting when he was a student at Hackney Downs Grammar School. In 1948, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) on an acting grant, but he left before graduation to find work in the theater. For a time he was with a theater troupe in Ireland and worked on the stage as David Baron.

Pinter wrote his first play The Room in 1957 for Bristol University Theater regarding the odd relationship of a white woman and a black messenger boy. But it was his second play The Birthday Party, which he wrote the following year, that established him as a force in the theater. The story of Stanley, a lonely musician who, after a night of drinking to celebrate what may be his birthday, is taunted by two strangers, Goldberg and McCann, until he breaks down and reveals his troubled childhood. All the hallmarks of Pintersque theater came to light with this one: tight, enclosed spacings; fierce, confrontational dialogue; deliberate pauses and silences that only enhance revelations; and the disintegration of facades. Pinter had arrived, and later plays such as The Caretaker, The Homecoming, and The Collection further explored his themes of working-class mileus, the purpose of violence and supressed human yearning; all of these only deepened his reputation as a writer with a singular talent.

By the early '60s, Pinter began his shift into films. His first screenplay, The Pumpkin Eater (BAFTA Winner, 1964), was a beautifuly constructed study of a failing marriage (artfully played by Peter Finch and Anne Bancroft) that was filled with wry observations and haunting moments of self discovery. Other works include the tight, award-winning spy thriller The Quiller Memorandum (1966) that made a star of George Segal; the seductive language and nuances of his adaptation of L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between (BAFTA Winner, 1970) that deals with an illicit romance between lovers (Alan Bates and Julie Christie) and its lasting effect on a young boy (Dominic Guard) who enabled their romance; his first Oscar® nomination for the Meryl Streep vehicle The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981); a second Oscar® nomination for an adaptation of his own play Betrayal (1983); and the joyous story of two turtle enthusiasts (Ben Kingsley and Glenda Jackson) who bond over their desire to free giant sea turtles in Turtle Diary (1985).

Pinter was also notable in that he continued to act, and made many film appearances in The Servant (1963), Accident (1967), Turtle Diary (1985), Mansfield Park (1998), The Tailor of Panama (2001), and a final cameo in Sleuth (2007). He even tried his hand at film directing, doing an impressive job with Alan Bates in the mordant yet funny and moving story of a University professor going through a mid-life crisis in Butley (1974).

For all his services to theater and film, he notably received in 2005, The Nobel Prize for Literature, a fitting close to an amazing career. Pinter was married to actress Vivien Merchent (1956-1980) and later Antonia Fraser for 28 years until his death. He is survived by Fraser; and a son from his marriage to Merchent, Daniel.

by Michael T. Toole