Peter Shaffer

Peter Shaffer, born in 1926, British playwright, best known for psychological plays that often focus on relationships between people of seemingly opposite natures with some shared bond. Peter Levin Shaffer was born in Liverpool, England, and educated at Saint Paul's School in London, graduating in 1944. From 1944 to 1947 he worked as a coal miner, and then attended Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he received his B.A. degree in 1950. Shaffer subsequently lived in New York City, working at various jobs until he returned to London in 1954. From 1956 to 1957 he was literary critic for the British journal Truth, and then music critic for another British journal, Time and Tide, from 1961 to 1962.

Shaffer began writing novels with his twin brother Anthony when they were in their mid-twenties, but it was Shaffer's play Five Finger Exercise (1958) that first brought him critical acclaim, in the form of the Evening Standard Drama Award (sponsored annually by that British newspaper) and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best foreign play. The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), about the Spanish destruction of the Inca civilization of Peru, premiered at the British National Theatre in London, moved to New York, and was made into a motion picture in 1969. Equus (1973), the story of a psychoanalyst's attempt to understand the mysterious faith of a troubled young stable-boy, won the New York Drama Critics' Circle and Antoinette Perry (Tony) awards, and was filmed in 1979. Another critical success followed in 1979 with Amadeus, about the 18th-century rivalry between Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Italian composer Antonio Salieri. In 1984 the motion-picture adaptation won a Golden Globe Award and eight Academy Awards, including best film. Other major dramatic works by Shaffer that have enjoyed critical acclaim and successful runs in London's West End theater district are Lettice and Lovage (1987), winner of the Evening Standard Award for best comedy, and The Gift of the Gorgon (1992). Shaffer has also written plays for television and radio, including The Salt Land (1955), Balance of Terror (1957), and Whom Do I Have the Honour of Addressing? (1989).