biography
| name: |
Osborne, John (James)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1929–94)
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| biography:
| Playwright, film producer, and actor, born in London, UK. Educated at public school in Devon, he was briefly a copywriter, and he wrote his first plays while working as an actor in repertory theatres. Look Back in Anger (1956, filmed 1958), his first play as sole author, established him as the first of the ‘Angry Young Men’. The Entertainer (1957, filmed 1959), confirmed his position as the leading young exponent of British social drama. Among other works are Luther (1960, filmed 1971), Inadmissible Evidence (1964, filmed 1965), and West of Suez (1971), while Déjàvu (1991) rediscovers Jimmy Porter a generation later. He also wrote the screenplay of Tom Jones (1964, Oscar), and two volumes of outspoken and acerbic autobiography, A Better Class of Person (1981, televised 1985) and Almost a Gentleman (1991). |
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