John Osborne

For other people named John Osborne, see John Osborne (disambiguation).

John Osborne
Osborne in 1970
Osborne in 1970
BornJohn James Osborne
(1929-12-12)12 December 1929
Fulham, London, England
Died24 December 1994(1994-12-24) (aged 65)
Clun, Shropshire, England
Occupation
  • Playwright
  • Screenwriter
  • Political activist
Period1950–1992
Genre
Literary movementAngry Young Men
Notable worksLook Back in Anger
The Entertainer
Inadmissible Evidence
Notable awardsTony Award for Best Play (Luther, 1964)
Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Tom Jones, 1964)
BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay (Tom Jones, 1964)
SpousePamela Lane
Mary Ure
Penelope Gilliatt
Jill Bennett
Helen Dawson
Children1

John James Osborne (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and entrepreneur, who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in post-war theatre.[1][2][3] Born in London, he briefly worked as a journalist[4] before starting out in theatre as a stage manager and actor.[5] He lived in poverty for several years before his third produced play, Look Back in Anger (1956), brought him national fame.[6]

Based on Osborne's volatile relationship with his first wife, Pamela Lane, it is considered the first work of kitchen sink realism,[7][8] initiating a movement which made use of social realism and domestic settings to address disillusion with British society in the waning years of the Empire.[9] The phrase “angry young man”, coined by George Fearon to describe Osborne when promoting the play, came to embody the predominantly working class and left-wing writers within this movement. Osborne was considered its leading figure[10] due to his often controversial left-wing politics,[11][12] though critics nevertheless noted a conservative strain even in his early writing.[13]

The Entertainer (1957), Luther (1961), and Inadmissable Evidence (1964) were also well-received,[14] Luther winning the 1964 Tony Award for Best Play,[15] though reception to his later plays was less favourable.[16] During this period Osborne began writing and acting for television[8] and appearing in films, most notably as crime boss Cyril Kinnear in Get Carter (1971).[17]

In 1958, Osborne joined Look Back in Anger director Tony Richardson and film producer Harry Saltzman to form Woodfall Film Productions, in order to produce Richardson's 1959 film adaptation of Anger and other works of kitchen sink realism, spearheading the British New Wave. This included Osborne-penned adaptations of the Entertainer (1960) (co-written by Nigel Kneale), and Inadmissible Evidence (1968), as well as the period comedy Tom Jones (1963), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay[18] and BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay.[19]

Osborne was married five times, but the first four were troubled by affairs and his mistreatment of his partners.[20] In 1978 he married Helen Dawson, and from 1986 they lived in rural Shropshire.[21] He wrote two volumes of autobiography, A Better Class of Person (1981) and Almost a Gentleman (1991), and a collection of his non-fiction writing, Damn You, England, was published in 1994.[22] He died from complications of diabetes on 24 December of that year at the age of 65.[23]

  1. ^ "OSBORNE, John (1929–1994)". English Heritage. 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  2. ^ "John Osborne - The man who turned anger into art". BBC Online. 7 April 2005. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  3. ^ Billington, Michael (24 December 2014). "John Osborne: a natural dissenter who changed the face of British theatre". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  4. ^ Whitebrook 2015, pp. 32–39.
  5. ^ Heilpern 2006, p. 90.
  6. ^ "John Osborne | Biography & Look Back in Anger | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
  7. ^ "John Osborne". Encyclopedia Britannica. 29 March 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  8. ^ a b "Osborne, John (1929-1994)". BFI Screen Online. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  9. ^ Heilpern, pp. 93–102
  10. ^ Gilleman, Luc (2008). "From Coward and Rattigan to Osborne: Or the Enduring Importance of Look Back in Anger". Modern Drama. 51 (1): 104–124. doi:10.3138/md.51.1.104. S2CID 163110701.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ "Winners / 1964". Tony Awards. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
  16. ^ Cite error: The named reference BadJohn was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference wake was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference :12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ "Film in 1964". BAFTA. Retrieved 25 May 2024.
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Meyers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference Schmidt was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference :8 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).