Peter Shaffer

Peter Shaffer (1926- ), British dramatist, acclaimed author of the stage plays Equus and Amadeus. He was born Peter Levin Shaffer on May 15, 1926, in Liverpool, and educated at St Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge. From 1956 to 1957 he was literary critic on the weekly review Truth, and then music critic for Time and Tide magazine (1961-1962).

Shaffer began writing novels with his twin brother Anthony (1926-2001; who subsequently became a successful playwright himself, best known for Sleuth, 1970). But it was Peter Shaffer’s play Five Finger Exercise (1958) that first brought him critical acclaim in the form of the Evening Standard Drama Award and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best foreign play. The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964), about the Spanish destruction of the Inca civilization of Peru, premiered at the National Theatre, moved to New York, and was made into a film in 1969. Equus (1973), the story of a psychoanalyst's attempt to understand the mysterious faith of a young delinquent, won the New York Drama Critics' Award and Antoinette Perry Award, and was filmed in 1979. Another critical success followed with Amadeus, about the rivalry between the composers Mozart and Salieri, which had its stage premiere in 1979 at the National Theatre and was adapted by Shaffer for the cinema in 1984; the film went on to win eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. Among Shaffer’s other major dramatic works are Lettice and Lovage (1987), winner of the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy, and The Gift of the Gorgon (1992).

Peter Shaffer also wrote the television plays The Salt Land (1955) and Balance of Terror (1957), and the radio play Whom Do I Have the Honour of Addressing? (1989). He was knighted in 2001.