Robert Bolt is probably best known as the screenwriter of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965), A Man for All Seasons (1966), Ryan's Daughter (1970), and The Mission (1986). For a brief period in the early 1960s he was considered a major figure in British theater, and the theatrical version of A Man for All Seasons (1960), the most successful of all the plays handled by the legendary agent Peggy Ramsay--introduced to Bolt through BBC Radio script editor Barbara Bray--played a significant role in familiarizing British audiences with the techniques of German playwright Bertolt Brecht.

Born on 15 August 1924 in Sale, Greater Manchester, Robert Oxton Bolt was the second son of Ralph Bolt, the owner of a china and furniture shop, and Leah Binnion Bolt, who taught in a primary school. After graduating from Manchester Grammar School in 1940, Bolt worked unhappily as an office boy for Sun Life Assurance Company of Manchester in 1942, an...