Who dated Tom Stoppard?

Sir Tom Stoppard (; born Tomáš Sträussler; 3 July 1937 – 29 November 2025) was a British playwright and screenwriter. He wrote for film, radio, stage, and television, finding prominence with plays. His work covered the themes of human rights, censorship, and political freedom, often delving into the deeper philosophical bases of society. Stoppard, a playwright of the Royal National Theatre, was one of the most internationally performed dramatists of his generation and was critically compared with William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. He was knighted for his contribution to theatre in 1997 and awarded the Order of Merit in 2000.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard left as a Jewish child refugee, fleeing imminent Nazi occupation. He spent three years at a boarding school in Darjeeling in the Indian Himalayas, then settled with his family in England after the war, in 1946. After being educated at schools in Nottingham and Yorkshire, Stoppard became a journalist, a drama critic and then, in 1960, a playwright.

Stoppard's most prominent plays include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1974), Night and Day (1978), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993), The Invention of Love (1997), The Coast of Utopia (2002), Rock 'n' Roll (2006), and Leopoldstadt (2020). He wrote the screenplays for Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987), The Russia House (1990), Billy Bathgate (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Enigma (2001), and Anna Karenina (2012), as well as the BBC/HBO limited series Parade's End (2013). He directed the film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1990), adapting his own 1966 play as its screenplay, with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth as the leads.

Stoppard received numerous accolades including an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, three Laurence Olivier Awards, and five Tony Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 most powerful people in British culture". His final play, Leopoldstadt, set in the Jewish community of early 20th-century Vienna, premiered in 2020 at Wyndham's Theatre. It won the 2020 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and later the 2023 Tony Award for Best Play.

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Felicity Ann Kendal (born 25 September 1946) is an English actress, working principally in television and theatre. She has appeared in numerous stage and screen roles over a more than 70-year career, including as Barbara Good in the television series The Good Life from 1975 to 1977. Kendal was born in England, but moved to India with her family from the age of seven. Her father was an English actor-manager who led his own repertory company on tours of India, and Kendal appeared in roles for the company both before and after leaving England. She appeared in the film Shakespeare Wallah (1965) which was inspired by her family.

Kendal made several television appearances, starting with Love Story in 1966, and made her London stage debut in Minor Murder (1967) at the Savoy Theatre. She was approached to appear in The Good Life while appearing in The Norman Conquests, and appeared in all four series. She later went on to star in the sitcoms Solo (1981–82) and The Mistress (1985 and 1987) which were scripted by Carla Lane. Later television work included The Camomile Lawn (1992), which, as of 2022, remained the most-watched drama ever on Channel 4. However, the poor reception to the 1994 sitcom Honey for Tea led Kendal to focus on stage rather than television work for some years. She co-starred with Pam Ferris on television in Rosemary & Thyme (2003–2006) as one of a pair of gardeners and detectives.

Kendal's stage career blossomed during the 1980s and 1990s when she formed a close professional association with Tom Stoppard, starring in the first productions of many of his plays, including On the Razzle (1981), The Real Thing (1982), Hapgood (1988), and Arcadia (1993). She also appeared in ten plays directed by Peter Hall, from portraying Constanze Mozart in Amadeus (1979) to Esme in Amy's View (2006). She took her first role in a musical as Evangeline Harcourt in the 2021 London revival of Anything Goes at the Barbican Theatre. In 2023, she starred as Dotty Otley in Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre and the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Many of her stage performances have been critically acclaimed. Kendal was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1995 New Year Honours for services to drama.

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