Sir Tom Stoppard OM,
CBE (born 3 July 1937) is a British
screenwriter and playwright.
He has written plays such as
The Coast of Utopia,
Arcadia,
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, and
Rock 'n' Roll. He co-wrote the screenplays for
Brazil and
Shakespeare in Love.
Biography
Early years
Born
Tomáš Straussler in
Zlín,
Czechoslovakia, Stoppard fled to
Singapore with other Jews on 15 March 1939, the day that the
Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. In 1941, the family was evacuated to
Darjeeling, India, to escape the Japanese invasion of Singapore. His father, Eugene Straussler, remained behind as a British army volunteer, and died in a Japanese prison camp after capture.
