Osborne, John (James)

(born Dec. 12, 1929, London, Eng.—died Dec. 24, 1994, Shropshire) British playwright and film producer.

Initially an actor, he cowrote his first play, The Devil Inside Him (1950), with Stella Linden. His Look Back in Anger (1956; film, 1959) ushered in a spate of vigorously realistic plays about contemporary British working-class life, making Osborne the first of the postwar Angry Young Men. His next play, The Entertainer (1957; film, 1960), told the story of a failing music-hall comedian; it was commissioned by the actor Laurence Olivier, who starred in the stage and film versions. Osborne wrote the screenplay for the film Tom Jones (1963, Academy Award), and his other plays include Luther (1961) and Inadmissible Evidence (1964).

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