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Peter
Shaffer
Peter Shaffer was born in Liverpool, along with his twin brother, Anthony, who would also become a writer. He educated at St.
Paul's School, London, and Trinity College, Cambridge. Before finding his career in the theater, he worked at such diverse jobs as coal-miner (during WWII), assistant in the New York Public Library. In 1987 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and the following year he received the Shakespeare Prize in the City of Hamburg.
Shaffer's first play, The Salt Land, was well received after being shown by the BBC in 1954.
His first stage play, Five Finger Exercise (1958), runs in both London and New York City; the play won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.
The first of Shaffer's popular and artistic successes was The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), the fall of the Inca empire.
Equus arrived in late 1974, winning the 1975 Tony Award, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, and the New York Outer Critics Award for Best Play and running for over 1000 performances.
Several of Shaffer's plays have been adapted to film including The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), Equus (1977), and Amadeus (1984) which won the 1985 Oscar for Best Screenplay.
Shaffer returned to the radio in 1989 with the BBC-aired play Whom Do I Have the Honor of Addressing? Shaffer's most recent stage play was The Gift of the Gorgon, produced in London in 1992, the same year in which he won the William Inge Award for Distinguished Achievement in the American Theatre.
Shaffer also wrote the one-act comedies: The Private Ear (1962), The Public Eye (1962), Black Comedy (1965), White Lies (1967), and Lettice and Lovage (1987). His other plays include The Battle of Shrivings (1970), Yonadab (1985).
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