Osborne, John (James) 1929-94
English playwright and actor

Born in London, he left Belmont College, Devon, at the age of 16 and became a copywriter for trade journals. Hating it, he turned actor (1948) and by 1955 was playing leading roles in new plays at the Royal Court Theatre, London. There his fourth play, Look Back in Anger (1956, filmed 1958), and The Entertainer (1957, filmed 1960), with Sir Laurence Olivier playing Archie Rice, established Osborne as the leading young exponent of British social drama. The 'hero' of the first, Jimmy Porter, the prototype 'Angry Young Man', and the pathetic, mediocre music hall joker Archie Rice, both echo the author's uncompromising hatred of outworn social and political institutions and attitudes. Among other works are Luther (1960), Inadmissible Evidence (1965), Time Present and The Hotel in Amsterdam (both 1968), and the filmscript of Tom Jones, which won him an Academy Award (1963). He wrote his credo in Declarations (1957), and three volumes of autobiography, A Better Class of Person (1981), Almost a Gentleman (1991) and Damn You, England (1994).

Bibliography: S Trussler, The Plays of John Osborne (1969)