The royal couple were among those paying tribute to Sir Tom, who known for writing the film Shakespeare In Love and hit plays including Arcadia
The King and Queen have led tributes to award-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard after he died aged 88.
Sir Tom, known for writing the film Shakespeare In Love and hit plays including Arcadia, died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset “surrounded by his family,” his representatives United Agents announced.
In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, King Charles described him as “a dear friend who wore his genius lightly,” and said he and his wife “are deeply saddened to learn of the death of one of our greatest writers”.
King Charles said the couple send their “heartfelt sympathy” to Sir Tom’s beloved family, adding: “He could, and did, turn his pen to any subject, challenging, moving and inspiring his audiences, borne from his own personal history.”
He also said “let us all take comfort in his immortal line” – ‘Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else’ – referencing a quote from Sir Tom’s play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – which suggests that endings are opportunities for new beginnings.
In a tribute to Sir Tom, United Agents, said: “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.”
Among stars paying tribute to the playwright was Rolling Stones frontman Sir Mick Jagger, who said he was “a giant of the English theatre” and a “friend and companion” whom he would miss always.
Over his six-decade career, Sir Tom earned Tony and Olivier awards, as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for his and Marc Norman’s 1998 screenplay Shakespeare In Love, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow, Dame Judi Dench, and Joseph Fiennes.
Born in Czechoslovakia, Sir Tom was forced to flee his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain.
After working as a journalist and theatre critic he began writing plays for radio and TV.
His career as a playwright was launched in the 1960s, when he penned Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, which was performed at the National Theatre and later Broadway.
The play, which focuses on two minor characters from Hamlet, won several awards including four Tonys in 1968.
He went on to write a number of plays including Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Arcadia, and The Coast of Utopia trilogy set in 19th century Russia.
In 2020 he released Leopoldstadt, a play set in Vienna’s Jewish Quarter in the early 20th century.
The semi-autobiographical piece won him an Olivier for best new play as well as four Tony Awards.
Sir Tom also wrote for TV, radio and film, with much of his work exploring complex philosophical and political themes.
In 2012, he adapted Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina for the film with the same name which starred Kiera Knightley, Jude Law and Matthew Macfadyen.
He also adapted Ford Madox Ford’s Parade’s End for TV which starred Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall and contributed to the screenplay for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Rupert Goold, artistic director of the Almeida Theatre, paid tribute to the “most supportive, most generous man”.
He said: “Tom Stoppard’s magic was present in everything he wrote but he was also the kindest, most supportive, most generous, man.
“With Pinter you always knew you were in the presence of genius but with Tom you somehow felt you might participate in it too. Et in Arcadia est.”
The official X account for the Olivier Awards highlighted Sir Tom’s accolades and said West End theatres will dim their lights for two minutes at 7pm on 2 December to remember him.
It wrote: “Over a distinguished career spanning six decades, he won three Laurence Olivier Awards and five Tony Awards, and received an Academy Award for his screenplay for Shakespeare in Love.
“That recognition attests to the remarkable range and enduring impact of his work on both stage and screen.
“We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, colleagues, and all whose lives he enriched.”
Your next read
London’s Royal Court Theatre also paid tribute to Sir Tom, posting on its official X account that he was “a playwright whose work probed the deepest human mysteries of truth, time, mortality and frailty while dazzling with wit, laughter and the buoyancy of the human spirit”.
The National Theatre said it was “devastated” to hear about Sir Tom’s death, and “Today we have lost a giant of theatre.”
A production of Arcadia, set in an English country house across the early 19th century and the present day, will be performed at The Old Vic in London from January.
Sir Tom was knighted by the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his services to literature and won the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2017.
The late Queen made Sir Tom a member of the Order of Merit in 2000, the special distinction granted by the monarch to those who have advanced the fields of arts, learning, literature, and science, and limited to only 24 members at a time.
