Oscar-winning screenwriter Tom Stoppard dies at 88

Tom Stoppard, the playwright whose dazzling command of language reshaped modern theatre and who won an Academy Award for co-writing "Shakespeare in Love", has died at 88, the BBC confirmed.

United Agents said Stoppard passed away peacefully at his home in Dorset, surrounded by family. "He'll be remembered for the brilliance and humanity of his work, his irreverence, his generous spirit, and his profound love of the English language," the agency said.

Born in Czechoslovakia, Stoppard escaped Nazi rule as a child and later became one of Britain's most influential dramatists. Over a prolific career that spanned the stage, screen, and radio, he developed a reputation for philosophical comedy, linguistic playfulness, and sharp examinations of politics, love, and identity. His style became so distinctive that critics coined the adjective "Stoppardian".

Stoppard's breakthrough arrived in 1966 with "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", a reimagining of two minor "Hamlet" characters. After debuting at the Edinburgh Fringe, the play moved to the National Theatre and then to Broadway, earning him the first of his four Tony Awards.

Critics early on accused Stoppard of prioritising cleverness over emotion, but he pushed deeper in later works. Plays such as "The Real Thing" (1982) and "Arcadia" (1993) revealed a more intimate, introspective side, balancing his trademark intellectual pyrotechnics with tender human drama.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, Stoppard tackled political repression, journalism, and moral responsibility in works like "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour", "Night and Day", and "Travesties". His 2002 trilogy "The Coast of Utopia", a nine-hour exploration of Russian thinkers before the revolution, became one of his most celebrated achievements, later winning multiple Tony Awards on Broadway.

He returned in 2015 with "The Hard Problem", a meditation on consciousness that critics noted carried the familiar charge of his intellect, even as its ideas sometimes overshadowed character.

Alongside his stage career, Stoppard became a formidable screenwriter. He co-wrote "Brazil", adapted "Empire of the Sun" for Steven Spielberg, and contributed uncredited rewrites to major films including "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade", "Revenge of the Sith", "Sleepy Hollow", and "K-19: The Widowmaker". His 1998 screenplay for "Shakespeare in Love", written with Marc Norman, won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Stoppard's life was marked by displacement and reinvention. His family fled Singapore before the Japanese invasion, and he later learned that his father had died when the ship evacuating him was bombed in 1942. Raised in India and then England, he embraced his adopted country wholeheartedly, once calling himself "a bounced Czech". He began journalism at 17 with the "Western Daily Press" before turning to writing full-time.

Across more than five decades, he earned admiration for exploring the tension between intellect and emotion, reason and imagination. His work for theatre and film shaped generations of writers, critics, and audiences.

Stoppard is survived by his wife, Sabrina Guinness, and his four sons—Oliver, Barny, Bill and actor Ed Stoppard.