Tom Stoppard dies; wrote brain-teasing plays and movies including Brazil,' Coast of Utopia,' The Real Thing'

"In a statement Saturday, United Agents said Stoppard died peacefully at his home in Dorset in southern England, surrounded by his family. He will be remembered for his works, for their brilliance and humanity, and for his wit, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his profound love of the English language, they said. It was an honor to work with Tom and to know him."

"The Czech-born Stoppard was often hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation and was garlanded with honors, including a shelf full of theater gongs. His brain-teasing plays ranged across Shakespeare, science, philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century. Five of them won Tony Awards for best play: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1968; Travesties in 1976; The Real Thing in 1984; The Coast of Utopia in 2007; and Leopoldstadt in 2023."

Tom Stoppard died peacefully at his Dorset home at age 88, surrounded by family. United Agents said his works will be remembered for their brilliance, humanity, wit, irreverence, generosity of spirit and profound love of the English language. The Czech-born writer was hailed as the greatest British playwright of his generation and received numerous honors. His plays combined language, knowledge and feeling and ranged across Shakespeare, science, philosophy and the historic tragedies of the 20th century. Five plays won Tony Awards and he won an Academy Award for the screenplay of Shakespeare In Love. Born Tomas Straussler in 1937, he fled Nazi-occupied Europe and settled in postwar Britain.

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