Born in London on October 10, 1930 Pinter was the son of immigrants from eastern Europe, most likely Poland. When he was a teenager after World War II Pinter began writing at Downs Grammer School by first taking poetry; which he continues to do to this day. While still in class Pinter appeared in the Shakesphere plays "Romeo and Juliet" and "MacBeth". Then in 1948 Pinter was called to serve for the British military but he refused and was later fined. Pinter left Downs Grammer School the next year. During the 1950's Pinter began in a string of acting school that took him not only in London but in Ireland. In 1956 twenty-six old Pinter married British actress Vivien Merchant and although they would have a son named Daniel the relationship was a rocky one especially after when Merchant's career began to take off in the mid-1960's (they would divorce in 1980 and in a bizarre twist Pinter married Antonia Fraser; who he had been seeing instead of Merchant and Merchant died just three years later from heart failure from alcohol). One year later, Pinter debuted his first play "The Room" in which Pinter wrote the play in just three days after it popped into his head. His next play "The Birthday Party" was a flop when it premiered in London that year but when it came to New York a decade later, it was a gigantic hit and Pinter won the Tony for Best Play. As the 60's dawned Pinter entered his next phase: Movies. In 1963 Pinter his first screenplay-which was The Caretaker which featured Donald Pleasence and in his first role Alan Bates.
That same year Pinter collaborated with exiled American director Joseph Losey (exiled because he was blacklisted) to write the adaptation of the Robin Maugham short novel The Servant.
The movie was a big hit when released that same year and it made the film's lead actor Dirk Bogarde a big star
and so did co-stars Sarah Miles (who like Merchant was also married to a writer-Robert Bolt) and James Fox. The next year in 1964 Pinter wrote the screenplay to The Pumpkin Eater; based on another novel and this time from Penelope Morimer. The movie was directed by Jack Clayton and it starred Anne Bancroft, Peter Finch, and James Mason.
In 1966 he wrote the screenplay to the spy drama The Quiller Memorandum, based on the novel from Adam Hall.
George Segal, Alec Guinness, Max Von Sydow, and Senta Berger co-star. The next year Pinter re-teamed with director Losey and Dirk Bogarde to write the screenplay to Accident.
The film was an even bigger hit than The Servant when released in 1967 and it co-stared Jacqueline Sassard and in his first movie-Michael York. Then Pinter closed out the decade by writing the screenplay to his own play The Birthday Party which stared Robert Shaw and Patrick Magee (John Steed in "The Avengers"). Since the 1970's Pinter has continued to write in plays and movies. In the early-1980's he received two Oscar nominations for writing the adaptations of The French Lieutenant's Woman and Betrayal (which was based on another of his plays). He even continues in his first love of acting as he played the father of Vivian Bearing in the HBO TV movie "Wit". In 2005 Pinter received the Nobel Prize for lifetime in writing. That same year Pinter, in a interview to Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4's "Front Row" said that he was seriously thinking about retiring to focus on his political activism because he felt it was time to get the world back on track. Who knows what will happen next for him but Pinter really carved a small piece on British cinema in the 1960's.
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