Harwood, Ronald CBE FRSL

1934

The writer Ronald Harwood was born on 9 November 1934, the son of Isaac Horwitz and his wife Isabel (née Pepper). He was educated in Cape Town and at RADA. He was an actor from 1953 to 1960, was Chairman of the Writers Guild of Great Britain in 1969, served as Artistic Director of the Cheltenham Festival of Literature in 1975, and has taught and lectured at various colleges and universities. Harwood has written a number of novels and short stories and biographies of Sir Donald Wolfit, John Gielgud and Alec Guinness. His plays have been especially successful on the London stage: among them “Country Matters” (1969), the award-winning “The Dresser” (1980) and “Taking Sides” (1995). Harwood wrote the screen plays for “A High Wind in Jamaica” (1965), “Evita Perón” (1981), “The Dresser” (1983), “Mandela” (1987), “The Browning Version” (1994), “Cry, the Beloved Country” and “The Pianists” (2003). He became a member of the Garrick Club in 1967.