Editing John Osborne (section)

==Career==

After school, Osborne went home to his mother in London and briefly tried trade journalism.<ref name=":0" /> A job tutoring a touring company of junior actors introduced him to the theatre. He soon became involved as a [[stage management|stage manager]] and actor and joined [[Anthony Creighton]]'s provincial touring company.<ref name=":1" /> Osborne tried his hand at writing plays, co-writing his first, ''The Devil Inside Him'', with his mentor [[Stella Linden]], who directed it at the Theatre Royal in [[Huddersfield]] in 1950. In June 1951 Osborne married Pamela Lane.<ref name="PamLanobit">{{cite web |author=John Heilpern |author-link=John Heilpern |date=21 November 2010 |title=Pamela Lane [1930-2010] obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/nov/21/pamela-lane-obituary |access-date=19 April 2018 |work=The Guardian |quote=Stalwart of British theatre and first wife of John Osborne}}</ref> His second play, ''[[Personal Enemy]],'' was written with Anthony Creighton, with whom he later wrote ''[[Epitaph for George Dillon]]'', staged at the [[Royal Court Theatre|Royal Court]] in 1958. ''Personal Enemy'' was staged in regional theatres before he submitted ''[[Look Back in Anger]]''.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=108-9}}.</ref>

=== ''Look Back in Anger'' ===
''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' was written in 17 days in a deck chair on [[Morecambe]] pier where Osborne was performing in [[Hugh Hastings (playwright)|Hugh Hastings']] play ''[[Seagulls Over Sorrento (play)|Seagulls over Sorrento]]'' in a [[repertory theatre]]. Osborne's play is largely autobiographical,<ref>Heilpern pp. 114–119: "''Look Back in Anger'' was based on the breakdown of Osborne's marriage to Lane".</ref><ref name="sierz">{{cite news| url=https://www.spectator.com.au/2018/03/first-wife-enduring-love-the-passionate-affair-of-john-osborne-and-pamela-lane/ | work=Spectator {{!}} Australia | title=First wife, enduring love: the passionate affair of John Osborne and Pamela Lane | first=Aleks | last=Sierz | author-link=Aleks Sierz | date=31 March 2018 | access-date=29 April 2023}}</ref> based on his time living, and arguing, with Pamela Lane in cramped accommodation in [[Derby]], while she had an affair with a local dentist.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=2}}; {{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=128}}.</ref> It was submitted to several agents in London, who rejected it. In his autobiography, Osborne writes: "The speed with which it had been returned was not surprising, but its aggressive dispatch did give me a kind of baffled relief. It was like being grasped at the upper arm by a testy policeman and told to move on".<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=4}}.</ref> Finally it was sent to the new [[English Stage Company]] at London's [[Royal Court Theatre]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wardle|1978|p=180}}.</ref>

Formed by actor-manager and [[artistic director]] [[George Devine]], the company had seen its first two productions perform disappointingly.<ref>{{harvnb|Wardle|1978|pp=176-80}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=78}}.</ref> Devine was prepared to gamble on this play because he saw in it a powerful articulation of a new post-war spirit.<ref>{{harvnb|Wardle|1978|pp=180-81, 187-88}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=74}}.</ref> Osborne was living on a houseboat with Creighton at Cubitts Yacht Basin in [[Chiswick]]<ref name="CBF Writers Trail">{{cite web |title=Writers Trail |url=https://www.chiswickbookfestival.net/chiswick-timeline-writers-trail/ |publisher=Chiswick Book Festival |access-date=10 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605163630/https://www.chiswickbookfestival.net/chiswick-timeline-writers-trail/ |archive-date=5 June 2021 |date=2021}}</ref> on the [[River Thames]] at the time and eating stewed [[Urtica dioica|nettles]] from the riverbank.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|pp=2-3}}.</ref> When Devine accepted the play, he had to row out to the houseboat to speak to Osborne.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=275}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=74}}.</ref> The play was directed by [[Tony Richardson]] and starred [[Kenneth Haigh]], [[Mary Ure]] and [[Alan Bates]].<ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=279}}.</ref> George Fearon, a press officer at the theatre, used the phrase "[[Angry young men|angry young man]]" when promoting ''Look Back in Anger''. He told Osborne that he disliked the play and feared it would be impossible to market.<ref>{{harvnb|Little|McLaughlin|2007|p=25}}.</ref>

Reviews of ''Look Back in Anger'' were mixed: most of the critics who attended the first night felt it was a failure.<ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=78}}.</ref> Positive reviews from [[Kenneth Tynan]] and [[Harold Hobson]], however, plus a TV broadcast of Act 2, helped create interest, and the play transferred successfully to the [[Lyric Theatre (Hammersmith)]] and to [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]], later touring to [[Moscow]].<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1957|p=62}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|pp=79, 90-92}}.</ref><ref>Tony Richardson characterizes the play as a ''[[succès de scandale]]'' but not a box-office smash: "In England, ''Look Back'' was never a commercial success (another myth that needs dispelling): it didn’t ever sell out at the Court. Some six months later we were going to do a three-week revival at the Lyric, Hammersmith – a theatre less prominent than the Court. I did a TV version of Act 2 that created enough interest to sell out those three weeks. On later revivals we did OK but not sensational business. No West End theatre would accept us, and no commercial management wanted to take us on even as partners. But what the two notices [by Tynan and Hobson] did was something more important: they made us the theatre of the moment, the place where it was happening – take it or leave it, love it or hate it" ({{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=79}}). ''A Better Class of Person'' reproduces a photo of the Royal Court's front of house, with ''Look Back in Anger'' playing and a sign warning "House Full", but [[Irving Wardle]] broadly supports Richardson's account: "Amid all the noise about angry young men and kitchen sinks, the exploit of the Royal Court was viewed as heroic. A lot of people cared about it. The snag was that not enough of them expressed their feelings by purchasing tickets" ({{harvnb|Wardle|1978|p=188}}).</ref> A film version was released in May 1959 with [[Richard Burton]] and Mary Ure in the leading roles.<ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|p=160}}.</ref> The play brought Osborne fame<ref>The mini-biography of Osborne in ''Declaration'' states, "In 1956, with the Royal Court Theatre production of this play [''Look Back in Anger''], he became famous overnight" ({{harvnb|Osborne|1957|p=62}}).</ref> and won him the [[Evening Standard Awards|''Evening Standard'' Drama Award]] as the most promising playwright of 1956.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/blue-plaque-hammersmith-look-back-in-anger-john-osborne-b933887.html | work=[[Evening Standard]] | title=Blue Plaque for Hammersmith home of Look Back in Anger playwright John Osborne | first=Robert | last=Dex | date=8 May 2021 | access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref>

During production Osborne, then married, began a relationship with (Eileen) Mary Ure, and would divorce his wife, Pamela Lane, to marry Ure in 1957.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=196-200}}.</ref> Ure died in 1975.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=499}}.</ref>

=== ''The Entertainer'' and into the 1960s ===
[[File:John Osborne by Reginald Gray.jpg|thumb|180px|right|Osborne by Irish artist [[Reginald Gray (artist)|Reginald Gray]], London (1957)]]
When he first saw ''Look Back in Anger'', [[Laurence Olivier]] had a poor opinion of the play.<ref name="It's me, isn't it?">{{cite news| url=http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/comedy/story/0,,2027355,00.html | work=The Guardian | title='It's me, isn't it?' | first=John | last=Heilpern | author-link= John Heilpern | date=6 March 2007 | access-date=28 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|pp=84-85}}.</ref> At the time, Olivier was making a film of Rattigan's ''[[The Prince and the Showgirl]]'' co-starring [[Marilyn Monroe]], and she was accompanied to London by her husband [[Arthur Miller]]. Olivier asked the American dramatist what plays he might want to see in London. Based on its title, Miller suggested Osborne's work; Olivier tried to dissuade him, but the playwright was insistent and the two of them saw it together.<ref name="It's me, isn't it?" />

Miller found the play revelatory, and they went backstage to meet Osborne. Olivier was impressed by the American's reaction and asked Osborne for a part in his next play. [[George Devine]], artistic director of the Royal Court, sent Olivier the incomplete script of ''[[The Entertainer (play)|The Entertainer]].'' Olivier eventually took the central role as failing [[music hall|music-hall]] performer Archie Rice, playing successfully both at the Royal Court and in the West End.<ref name="It's me, isn't it?" />

''The Entertainer'' uses the metaphor of the dying music hall tradition and its eclipse by early [[rock and roll]] to comment on the declining influence of the [[British Empire]] and its eclipse by the increasing influence of the [[United States]], as illustrated during the [[Suez Crisis]] of November 1956 which forms the backdrop to the play. ''The Entertainer'' found critical acclaim.<ref name=":2">{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=88}}.</ref>

Osborne followed ''The Entertainer'' with ''[[The World of Paul Slickey]]'' (1959), a musical that satirizes the tabloid press;<ref>{{cite web |title=John Osborne: New biography records the day the Look Back in Anger playwright was chased by an angry mob |author=Peter Whitebrook |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/features/john-osborne-new-biography-records-the-day-the-look-back-in-anger-playwright-was-chased-by-an-angry-mob-a6749141.html |date=25 November 2015 |access-date=3 April 2023}}</ref> the televised documentary play ''A Subject of Scandal and Concern'' (1960);<ref>{{harvnb|Richardson|1993|p=211}}.</ref><ref name="wake">{{cite web |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/452881/ |title=Osborne, John (1929-1994) |first=Oliver|last=Wake |work=[[Screenonline]] |access-date=19 April 2023}}</ref> and the double bill ''Plays for England'', comprising ''[[The Blood of the Bambergs]]'' and ''[[Under Plain Cover]]'' (1962).<ref>{{harvnb|Wardle|1978|p=242}}.</ref>

''[[Luther (play)|Luther]]'', depicting the life of [[Martin Luther]], was first performed in 1961; it transferred to Broadway and won Osborne a [[Tony Award]].<ref name="billington">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/dec/24/john-osborne-a-natural-dissenter-who-changed-the-face-of-british-theatre | work=The Guardian | title=John Osborne: a natural dissenter who changed the face of British theatre | first=Michael | last=Billington | date=24 December 2014 | access-date=3 April 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1994/12/27/vitriolic-british-playwright-john-osborne-dies/b108df97-146f-413a-9d1a-fe3c36291944/ | newspaper=Washington Post | title=Vitriolic British Playwright John Osborne Dies | date=27 December 1994 | access-date=15 April 2023}}</ref> ''[[Inadmissible Evidence]]'' was first performed in 1964.<ref name="billington" /> In between these plays, Osborne won an [[Academy Awards|Oscar]] for his 1963 screenplay adaptation of ''[[Tom Jones (1963 film)|Tom Jones]]''.<ref name=":12">{{Cite web|url=https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1964|title=The 36th Academy Awards {{!}} 1964|website=www.oscars.org|date=5 October 2014 |language=en|access-date=2023-05-02}}</ref> His 1965 play, ''[[A Patriot for Me]]'', draws on the Austrian [[Alfred Redl|Redl]] case, involving themes of [[homosexuality]] and espionage, and helped to end the system of theatrical [[censorship]] under the [[Lord Chamberlain#Theatre censorship|Lord Chamberlain]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shellard |first1=Dominic |last2=Nicholson |first2=Steve |last3=Handley |first3=Miriam |year=2004 |title=The Lord Chamberlain Regrets: A History of British Theatre Censorship |url=https://archive.org/details/lordchamberlainr0000shel |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=British Library |pages=163–74 |isbn=0-7123-4865-4}}</ref>

Both ''A Patriot For Me'' and ''The Hotel in Amsterdam'' (1968) won [[Evening Standard Awards|''Evening Standard'' Best Play of the Year awards]].<ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|pp=243, 274}}.</ref> ''The Hotel in Amsterdam'' features three showbiz couples in a hotel suite, having fled a tyrannical movie producer, referred to as "K.L."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2003/sep/18/theatre | work=The Guardian | title=Review: The Hotel in Amsterdam | first=Michael | last=Billington | date=18 September 2003 | access-date=28 April 2023}}</ref> Osborne's biographer [[John Heilpern]] asserts that "K.L." was meant to represent director and producer [[Tony Richardson]].<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=359}}.</ref>

=== 1970s and later life ===
John Osborne's plays in the 1970s included ''West of Suez,'' starring [[Ralph Richardson]]; 1975's ''The End of Me Old Cigar''; and ''Watch It Come Down'', starring [[Frank Finlay]].<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=382-83}}.</ref> Theatre historian [[Phyllis Hartnoll]] wrote that Osborne's work of this period "failed to enhance his reputation": his fellow playwright [[Alan Bennett]] recalled "frozen embarrassment" at the premiere of ''Watch It Come Down'', though [[Richard Ellmann]], reviewing an early performance, noticed unintentional audience laughter.<ref name = "Hartnoll">{{cite book |last=Hartnoll |first=Phyllis |year=1993 |title=The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=363 |isbn=978-0-192-82574-2}}</ref><ref name = "BadJohn">{{cite news|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v03/n22/alan-bennett/bad-john|title=Bad John|date=3 December 1981|accessdate=23 March 2023|author=Bennett, Alan|newspaper=London Review of Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/21/archives/osbornes-latest-slang-bash-fizzle.html | work=The New York Times | title=Osborne's Latest — Slang, Bash, Fizzle | first=Richard | last=Ellmann | date=21 March 1976 | access-date=23 March 2023}}</ref>

Perhaps his most harshly received work from this era was ''A Sense of Detachment'' (1972), which has no plot and features a scene where an elderly lady recites at length from a [[hardcore pornography|hardcore porn]] catalogue. Part of the play involves actors planted in the audience pretending to protest, though after this began to trigger actual heckling, actress [[Rachel Kempson]] leapt into the stalls and assaulted some of the troublemakers in a much publicised incident. A representative review in the ''[[Financial Times]]'' declared, "This must surely be an end to his career in the theatre".<ref name = "Hartnoll" /><ref name = "BadJohn" /><ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=142}}.</ref><ref name="Heilpern Guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2006/apr/29/theatre.biography |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=A sense of failure |date=29 April 2006 |access-date=7 May 2010 |author=John Heilpern}}</ref>

During that decade Osborne played the role of gangster Cyril Kinnear in ''[[Get Carter]]'' (1971).<ref name="wake" /><ref name="screenonline">{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/452881/credits.html|title=Osborne, John (1929-1994): Film and TV Credits {{!}} Screenonline|website=www.screenonline.org.uk|language=en|access-date=2023-04-19}}</ref> Later, he appeared in ''[[Tomorrow Never Comes]]'' (1978) and ''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'' (1980).<ref name="screenonline" />

Osborne's later public image differed from his 'angry young man' persona of the 1950s. From 1986, Osbourne and his wife Helen lived at [[The Hurst]], near [[Clunton]] in rural [[Shropshire]].<ref name = "Schmidt">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/27/obituaries/john-osborne-british-playwright-dies-at-65.html | work=The New York Times | title=John Osborne, British Playwright, Dies at 65 | first=William E. | last=Schmidt | date=27 December 1994 | access-date=25 March 2023}}</ref> Increasingly his life resembled that of an old-fashioned country gentleman.<ref name=":6">Heilpern p.1</ref> He wrote a diary for conservative British magazine ''[[The Spectator]]'', a publication that when young he had been contemptuous of.<ref name=":7">''Times'' obituary, 27 December 1994</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1957|p=65}}.</ref> He raised money for the local church roof by opening his garden to the public, and threatened to withdraw funding for this unless the vicar restored the [[Book of Common Prayer]] (Osborne had returned to the [[Church of England]] in about 1974).<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|loc=Chapter 45}}</ref> [[Ferdinand Mount]] draws a contrast between this devotion to Anglican ritual and the opening of ''Look Back in Anger'', with Jimmy Porter railing against the sound of church bells.<ref name="mount">{{cite news| url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/looking-back-in-judgment/ | work=The Spectator | location=London | title=Looking back in judgment | first=Ferdinand | last=Mount | author-link=Ferdinand Mount | date=6 May 2006 | access-date=23 March 2023}}</ref> In 2003 the Osbourne's residence was opened as a residential retreat for writers by the [[Arvon Foundation]].<ref name=BBC03>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/culture/writestuff/2003/02/hurst.shtml|archive-url=|title=Poet laureate to visit new writing centre|date=February 2003|work=BBC News|accessdate=11 October 2024|archivedate=}}</ref>

In the last two decades of his life Osborne published two volumes of [[autobiography]], ''[[A Better Class of Person]]'' (1981) and ''Almost a Gentleman'' (1991). Reviewing the first of these books, Alan Bennett wrote, "It is immensely enjoyable, is written with great gusto and Osborne has had better notices for it than for any of his plays since ''Inadmissible Evidence''."<ref name = "BadJohn" /> ''A Better Class of Person'' was filmed by [[Thames Television]] in 1985, featuring [[Eileen Atkins]] and [[Alan Howard (actor)|Alan Howard]] as his parents, and Gary Capelin and [[Neil McPherson (artistic director)|Neil McPherson]] as Osborne.<ref name = "O'Connor">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/25/arts/tv-reviews-better-class-of-person-by-john-osborne-on-13.html | work=New York Times | title=TV Reviews; 'Better Class of Person by John Osborne, on 13 | first=John J. | last=O'Connor | date=25 March 1987 | access-date=7 April 2023}}</ref> It was nominated for the [[Prix Italia]]. 

Osborne's last play was ''[[Déjàvu]]'' (1992), a sequel to ''Look Back in Anger''. Various of his newspaper and magazine writings appeared in a collection entitled ''Damn You, England'' (1994),<ref name=":8">{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/book-review-betes-noires-in-steaming-herds-damn-you-england-collected-prose-john-osborne-faber-14-99-pounds-1372157.html | work=The Independent | title=Betes noires in steaming herds | first=Paul | last=Taylor | date=23 April 1994 | access-date=28 April 2023}}</ref> while his two autobiographical volumes were reissued as ''Looking Back – Never Explain, Never Apologise'' (1999).<ref name="mount" />