Sir Tom Stoppard CBE (born Tomás Straüssler on 3 July 1937 in Zlín, Czechoslovakia[1]) is a British playwright. His major works include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1967), The Real Inspector Hound (1968), Jumpers (1972), Travesties (1975), The Real Thing (1982), Arcadia (1993) and The Invention of Love (1997).
Stoppard is also the author of the screenplays of the films Brazil (1985), Empire of the Sun (1987) and Shakespeare in Love (1998), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.[2]
Among many other notable citations, Stoppard has been awarded the Tony Award three times, the New York Drama Critics' Circle award three times, and the Evening Standard Award for Best Play six times.[3] In 1997 he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.[4]