RIP Sir Tom Stoppard: The woman-loving wordsmith who fled Hitler to become the greatest (and wittiest) playwright of his generation

No one seemed to have more fun with English than Sir Tom Stoppard. And few English playwrights were so respected or rewarded.

Not bad considering English is not his native language. But the cricket-loving Czech-born immigrant, who died yesterday aged 88, once said he felt at home when he arrived here at the age of eight because his family had fled the Nazis.

From that moment on he never stopped writing. Over time, he would become hailed as the titan of drama, the most famous playwright of the modern era, with his brilliant, imaginative and innovative works capturing political and philosophical themes. It’s simple, friends said last night, there was no other writer like him.

He passed away peacefully at his home in Dorset, surrounded by his family, and his agent said he would be remembered ‘for his work, his intelligence and humanity, his intelligence, his irreverence, his generosity of spirit and his deep love of the English language’.

They added: ‘It was an honor to work with and know Tom.’

Since bursting into the public eye with Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead in 1966, Sir Tom has written some of the most dazzling drama of the 20th century during a career that spanned six decades.

His talents were not limited to the stage. He won an Oscar for the 1998 film Shakespeare in Love and has worked on many blockbusters, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The word ‘Stoppardian’ was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 1993, in reference to the intelligence, eloquence and philosophical musings that characterize his work.

As friends paid tribute last night, one noted his ‘charming charisma’ which ‘mesmerised men and women’. He was married three times: to nurse Josie Ingle; to the long-suffering aunt Miriam Stern; and to television producer Sabrina Guinness, who briefly dated Prince Charles in 2014.

The playwright wrote some of the most dazzling drama of the 20th century in a career spanning six decades

Sir Tom was knighted in 1997 and met the Queen in 2000 when she presented him with the Order of Merit.

While married to Miriam, Sir Tom had an on-and-off relationship with Felicity Kendall, whom he considered his muse. Felicity once said: ‘I don’t talk about it. He’s married and he doesn’t like it… it’s off limits.’ Actress Sinead Cusack was another girlfriend.

His close friend Sir Mick Jagger said: ‘Tom was one of the giants of British theatre; He was both highly intellectual and very funny in all his plays and scripts. He had a dazzling intelligence and loved both classical and popular music; this appeared frequently in his major works.

‘It was fun and quietly sarcastic. ‘A friend and companion and I will always miss him.’

Writer Kathy Lette called her ‘one of the wittiest people I’ve ever met’.

Sir Tom was born in Czechoslovakia in 1937. His family moved to Singapore, where his father was killed in a Japanese bombing raid. His mother remarried a British Army major and he attended a public school in Pocklington, Yorkshire.

Instead of going to university, he turned to journalism and worked as a reporter and theater critic for a Bristol newspaper.

It first made its mark in 1966. At the age of 29, he became the youngest playwright to perform at the National Theater with Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead, about two minor characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Combining wit and irreverence with intellectual mastery, his work often revolved around unexpected conceits or juxtapositions and included dazzling dialogue, wordplay, and repartee.

Jumpers, for example, was a game about academic philosophy and gymnastics. He wrote Hapgood, a play about espionage and quantum physics, and Arcadia, a play about mathematics, thermodynamics, literature, and landscape gardening.

Sir Tom’s many other successes included The Real Inspector Hound, which parodied on-stage absurdities and sent out theater critics, and Night And Day, a satire on the British media.

The author had a colorful love life and was married three times. First to nurse Josie Ingle, then to Miriam Stern (pictured with her son Edmund) and finally to producer Sabrina Guinness

Mick Jagger (pictured left) was a close friend. ‘Tom was one of the giants of British theatre; “He was both extremely intellectual and very funny in all his plays and scripts,” he said.

Sir Tom once said: ‘Some writers write because they burn a cause, and they go further by writing about that cause. I’m burning for no reason. I can’t say that I write for any social purpose. ‘One writes because one really likes to write.’

He hoped that his name would live on, despite Sir Tom’s rejection of academic interpretation.

“Obviously, the idea that one is also writing for the future has always meant a lot to me,” he said when accepting his lifetime achievement award in 2017.

‘I was never convinced that things would work that way.’

When he was knighted in 1997, he recalled arriving in Britain: ‘I felt instantly proud. ‘I’ve felt like an Englishman almost from the day I arrived, but chivalry sort of seals that feeling.’