The King and Queen have led tributes to award-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, who has died aged 88, describing him as “a dear friend who wore his genius lightly”.
In a statement released by Buckingham Palace, Charles said: “My wife and I are deeply saddened to learn of the death of one of our greatest writers, Sir Tom Stoppard.
“A dear friend who wore his genius lightly, he could, and did, turn his pen to any subject, challenging, moving and inspiring his audiences, borne from his own personal history.
“We send our most heartfelt sympathy to his beloved family. Let us all take comfort in his immortal line: ‘Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else’.”
Sir Tom, known for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Arcadia and the film Shakespeare In Love, died “peacefully” at his home in Dorset “surrounded by his family”, United Agents said in a statement.
The statement added: “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.
“It was an honour to work with Tom and to know him.”
Among those paying tribute was Sir Mick Jagger, lead singer and co-founder of the Rolling Stones, who said Sir Tom 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 did not take off, however, until the 1960s with Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before going on to 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.
Sir Mick paid tribute to Sir Tom in a post on X, describing him as “my favourite playwright”.
In a tribute which was shared with the Press Association, he added: “Tom was a giant of the English theatre, both highly intellectual and very funny in all his plays and scripts.
“He had a dazzling wit and loved classical and popular music alike which often featured in his huge body of work.
“He was amusing and quietly sardonic. A friend and companion and I will always miss him.”
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 paid tribute to Sir Tom and said West End theatres will dim their lights for two minutes at 7pm on December 2 to remember him.
The statement said: “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.”
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, adding: “His bold storytelling encouraged audiences to reflect on history, philosophy, and the human experience.
“Today we have lost a giant of theatre.”
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.
A production of his play 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.
