Editing John Osborne

{{Short description|English playwright (1929–1994)}}
{{Other people|John Osborne}}
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{{Tone|date=May 2022}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = John Osborne
| image            = File:John_Osborne_(playwright).jpg
| caption          = Osborne in 1970
| birth_name       = John James Osborne
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1929|12|12|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Fulham]], [[London]], England
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1994|12|24|1929|12|12|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Clun]], [[Shropshire]], England
| occupation       = {{hlist|Playwright|screenwriter|political activist}}
| genre            = {{hlist| [[Social realism]]|[[Kitchen sink realism|kitchen sink drama]]}}
| movement         = [[Angry young men|Angry Young Men]]
| period           = 1950–1992
| notableworks     = ''[[Look Back in Anger]]''<br />''[[The Entertainer (play)|The Entertainer]]''<br />''[[Inadmissible Evidence]]''
| spouse           = Pamela Lane<br />[[Mary Ure]]<br />[[Penelope Gilliatt]]<br />[[Jill Bennett (British actress)|Jill Bennett]]<br />[[Helen Osborne|Helen Dawson]]
| children         = 1
| awards           = [[Tony Award for Best Play]] (''[[Luther (play)|Luther]]'', [[18th Tony Awards|1964]])<br />[[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay]] (''[[Tom Jones (1963 film)|Tom Jones]]'', [[36th Academy Awards|1964]])<br />[[BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay]] (''[[Tom Jones (1963 film)|Tom Jones]]'', [[17th British Academy Film Awards|1964]])
}}

'''John James Osborne''' (12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor, and entrepreneur, who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in [[Post-war Britain (1945–1979)|post-war]] [[theatre]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=OSBORNE, John (1929–1994) |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/john-osborne/ |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=[[English Heritage]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-04-07 |title=John Osborne - The man who turned anger into art |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/shropshire/content/articles/2005/04/07/great_salopians_john_osbourne_feature.shtml |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=[[BBC Online]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Billington |first=Michael |date=2014-12-24 |title=John Osborne: a natural dissenter who changed the face of British theatre |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/dec/24/john-osborne-a-natural-dissenter-who-changed-the-face-of-british-theatre |access-date=2024-05-27 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> Born in London, he briefly worked as a journalist<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|pp=32–39}}.</ref> before starting out in theatre as a stage manager and actor.<ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=90}}.</ref> He lived in poverty for several years before his third produced play, ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' (1956), brought him national fame.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Osborne {{!}} Biography & Look Back in Anger {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Osborne |access-date=2022-10-12 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>

Based on Osborne's volatile relationship with his first wife, Pamela Lane, it is considered the first work of [[kitchen sink realism]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-03-29 |title=John Osborne |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Osborne |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]}}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite web |title=Osborne, John (1929-1994) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/452881/index.html |access-date=2024-05-27 |website=[[BFI]] Screen Online}}</ref> initiating a movement which made use of [[social realism]] and domestic settings to address disillusion with British society in the waning years of the [[British Empire|Empire]].<ref name=":10">Heilpern, pp. 93–102</ref> The phrase “[[Angry young men|angry young man]]”, coined by George Fearon to describe Osborne when promoting the play, came to embody the predominantly [[working class]] and [[Left-wing politics|left-wing]] writers within this movement. Osborne was considered its leading figure<ref name=":11">{{Cite journal |last=Gilleman |first=Luc |date=2008 |title=From Coward and Rattigan to Osborne: Or the Enduring Importance of ''Look Back in Anger'' |journal=Modern Drama |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=104–124 |doi=10.3138/md.51.1.104 |s2cid=163110701}}</ref> due to his often controversial left-wing politics,<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> though critics nevertheless noted a conservative strain even in his early writing.<ref name=":5" />

''[[The Entertainer (play)|The Entertainer]]'' (1957), ''[[Luther (play)|Luther]]'' (1961), and ''[[Inadmissible Evidence|Inadmissable Evidence]]'' (1964) were also well-received,<ref name=":2" /> ''Luther'' winning the [[18th Tony Awards|1964]] [[Tony Award for Best Play]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Winners / 1964 |url=https://www.tonyawards.com/winners/year/1964/category/any/show/any/ |access-date=2024-05-25 |website=Tony Awards}}</ref> though reception to his later plays was less favourable.<ref name="BadJohn" /> During this period Osborne began writing and acting for television<ref name=":13" /> and appearing in films, most notably as crime boss Cyril Kinnear in ''[[Get Carter]]'' (1971).<ref name="wake" />

In 1958, Osborne joined ''Look Back in Anger'' director [[Tony Richardson]] and film producer [[Harry Saltzman]] to form [[Woodfall Film Productions]], in order to produce Richardson's [[Look Back in Anger (1959 film)|1959 film adaptation of ''Anger'']] and other works of kitchen sink realism, spearheading the [[British New Wave]]. This included Osborne-penned adaptations of ''[[the Entertainer (1960 film)|the Entertainer]]'' (1960) (co-written by [[Nigel Kneale]]), and ''[[Inadmissible Evidence (film)|Inadmissible Evidence]]'' (1968), as well as the [[Historical drama|period]] [[Comedy film|comedy]] ''[[Tom Jones (1963 film)|Tom Jones]]'' (1963), for which he won the [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] for [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]]<ref name=":12" /> and [[British Academy Film Awards|BAFTA Award]] for [[BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay|Best British Screenplay]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Film in 1964 |url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1964/film |access-date=2024-05-25 |website=BAFTA}}</ref>

Osborne was married five times, but the first four were troubled by affairs and his mistreatment of his partners.<ref name="Meyers" /> In 1978 he married [[Helen Osborne|Helen Dawson]], and from 1986 they lived in rural [[Shropshire]].<ref name="Schmidt" /> He wrote two volumes of autobiography, ''[[A Better Class of Person]]'' (1981) and ''Almost a Gentleman'' (1991), and a collection of his non-fiction writing, ''Damn You, England'', was published in 1994.<ref name=":8" /> He died from complications of diabetes on 24 December of that year at the age of 65.<ref name=":9" />

== Early life ==
Osborne was born on 12 December 1929<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=23}}.</ref> in London, the son of Thomas Godfrey Osborne, a commercial artist and advertising [[Copywriting|copywriter]] of [[South Wales|South Welsh]] ancestry, and Nellie Beatrice Grove, a [[Cockney]] barmaid.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=24}}.</ref>

In 1936, the family moved to the north Surrey suburb of [[Stoneleigh, Surrey|Stoneleigh]], where Thomas's mother had already settled.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=38–40}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|p=14}}.</ref> Osborne, however, would regard it as a cultural desert – a school friend declared subsequently that "he thought [we] were a lot of dull, uninteresting people."<ref>Schoolfriend Hilda Berrington, speaking on ''Osborne: Angry Man'', Channel Four.</ref> He adored his father but hated his mother,<ref name="ratcliffe">{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-55236|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/55236|title=Osborne, John James|year=2004}}</ref> whom he described as "hypocritical, self-absorbed, calculating and indifferent."<ref>{{cite web |last=Tuohy |first=William |date=27 December 1994 |title=John Osborne; Playwright Wrote 'Look Back in Anger' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-12-27-mn-13371-story.html |access-date=25 March 2024 |work=[[The Los Angeles Times]]}}</ref>

Thomas Osborne died in 1940, leaving the young boy an insurance settlement which he used to pay for a private education at Belmont College, a minor public school in [[Barnstaple]], Devon.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=60,64}}.</ref> He entered the school in 1943, but was expelled in the summer term of 1945.<ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|pp=27-28}}.</ref> Osborne claimed this was for hitting the headmaster, who had struck him for listening to a broadcast by [[Frank Sinatra]], but another former pupil asserted that Osborne was caught fighting with other pupils and did not assault the headmaster.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=148-49}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|pp=28-29}}.</ref> A [[School Certificate (United Kingdom)|School Certificate]] was the only formal qualification he acquired.<ref name="ratcliffe" />

==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" />

== Critical responses, idols and effect ==

===Inspiration===
Osborne described his childhood home as a place "where books... were almost completely disregarded".<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=81.}}</ref> One of the role models he identified was not a literary figure but a popular entertainer. Osborne was a great fan of comic [[Max Miller (comedian)|Max Miller]],<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=125–26}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=136.}}</ref> and saw parallels between them: 

{{quote|I love him (Max Miller), because he embodied a kind of theatre I admire most. 'Mary from the Dairy' was an overture to the danger that (Max) might go too far. Whenever anyone tells me that a scene or a line in a play of mine goes too far in some way then I know my instinct has been functioning as it should. When such people tell you that a particular passage makes the audience uneasy or restless, then they seem (to me) as cautious and absurd as landladies and girls-who-won't.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|pp=39–40}}.</ref>}} 

He claimed that it was his childhood memories of [[music hall]] that inspired ''The Entertainer'', "not, as I was told authoritatively by others, the influence of [[Bertolt Brecht]]".<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=27.}}</ref>

===Impact===
Osborne's work transformed British theatre.<ref>Heilpern p.xv</ref> He helped to make it artistically respected again, throwing off the formal constraints of the former generation, and turning public attention once more to language, theatrical rhetoric, and emotional intensity.{{cn|date=April 2023}} As a young man he decided 'it was a beholden duty at all times for me to kick against the pricks';<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=163}}.</ref> he saw theatre as a weapon with which ordinary people could break down class barriers.{{cn|date=April 2023}} He wanted his plays to be a reminder of real pleasures and real pains.{{cn|date=April 2023}} [[David Hare (playwright)|David Hare]] said in his memorial address:

{{quote|John Osborne devoted his life to trying to forge some sort of connection between the acuteness of his mind and the extraordinary power of his heart.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=477}}</ref>}}

Osborne did change the world of theatre, influencing playwrights such as [[Edward Albee]] and [[Mike Leigh]].{{cn|date=April 2023}} However, work of his kind of authenticity and originality would remain the exception rather than the rule.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}} This did not surprise Osborne; nobody understood the tackiness of the theatre better than the man who had played [[Hamlet]] on [[Hayling Island]].<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=7}}</ref> In 1992 he was awarded a [[Lifetime Achievement Award]] from the [[Writer's Guild of Great Britain]].<ref name = "Schmidt" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://writersguild.org.uk/history-writers-guild-awards/|title=History of the Writers' Guild Awards|website=WGGB: The Writers' Union|access-date=2023-03-25}}</ref>

== Personal life ==

=== Politics ===
In ''A Better Class of Person'', Osborne describes the emotional appeal that socialism had to him as a schoolboy and how he and his closest friends "all attended the local [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] meetings" as youths.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=83–85}}.</ref> He carried these affiliations with him into adult life, alienating fellow commuters and colleagues by regularly bringing a copy of the ''[[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Daily Worker]]'' into the office as a young journalist.<ref name=":3">{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=159–60}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=71}}.</ref> Given a platform to express his views in [[Declaration (anthology)|the 1957 anthology ''Declaration'']], he took the opportunity to criticize monarchy:
{{quote|I have called Royalty religion the 'national swill' because it is poisonous... the leader-writers and the bribed gossip mongers have only to rattle their sticks in the royalty bucket for most of their readers to put their heads down in this trough of Queen-worship... My objection to the Royalty symbol is that it is dead; it is the gold filling in a mouthful of decay.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1957|pp=68, 76}}.</ref>}}

He also protested about "[[Operation Grapple|the Christmas Island explosion]]" and what he perceived as the blindly supportive response of the British media.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1957|pp=65-66}}.</ref> Osborne joined the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament|CND]] in 1959, and in the early '60s was a member of the [[Committee of 100 (United Kingdom)|Committee of 100]] who engaged in civil disobedience to protest against nuclear weapons.<ref name="ratcliffe" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://cnduk.org/peoples-history-of-cnd-the-committee-of-100/|title=The Committee of 100|website=Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament|access-date=2023-03-23}}</ref> 

In 1961, in the aftermath of the [[Berlin Wall]] being built, the left-wing magazine ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]'' published Osborne's "Letter to My Fellow Countrymen", addressing those politicians the author considered responsible for [[nuclear proliferation]]:
{{quote|My favourite fantasy is four minutes or so non-commercial viewing as you fry in your democratically elected hot seats... I would willingly watch you all die for the West... you could all go ahead and die for Berlin, for Democracy, to keep out the red hordes or whatever you like... damn you, England. You're rotting now, and quite soon you'll disappear... I write this from another country, with murder in my brain and a knife carried in my heart for every one of you. I am not alone. If WE had just the ultimate decency and courage, we would strike at you - now, before you blaspheme the world in our name. There is nothing I should not give for your blood on my head.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1994|pp=193–94}}.</ref><ref name="ianjack">{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/02/damn-you-england-wonder-whether-we-belong-brexit-vote | work=The Guardian | title=Damn you, England, for making us wonder whether we belong here | first=Ian | last=Jack | date=2 July 2016 | access-date=26 March 2023}}</ref>}}

The letter caused controversy. Conservative journalist [[Peregrine Worsthorne]] expressed concern about its "murderous language" and the possibility that the "resentment that John Osborne so virulently articulated" might be shared by many others, while the trade unionist [[Jack Jones (trade unionist)|Jack Jones]] commented, "every true Socialist should roar with applause".<ref name=":4">{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|pp=201-3}}.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Whitebrook|2015|pp=4-5, 184-89}}.</ref><ref name="ianjack" />

In his public letter, however, Osborne had denounced Labour leader [[Hugh Gaitskell]] as well as Conservative PM [[Harold Macmillan]].<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1994|p=194}}.</ref><ref name="ianjack" /> The following year, he told the ''[[Daily Herald (United Kingdom)|Daily Herald]]'' that he would not be voting Labour at the next election, adding "Barrenness is preferable to rape by one of two monsters."<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1994|p=195}}.</ref> His play ''Time Present'' (1968) contains a mocking caricature of a female Labour MP.<ref name="Meyers">{{registration required|date=April 2023}} {{cite journal|title=Osborne's Harem |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25475737 |access-date=April 1, 2023|journal=Antioch Review|date= 2009|volume= 67|pages=323–339|last1=Meyers |first1=Jeffrey |issue = 2|jstor=25475737 }}</ref> Critics saw a conservative attitude to empire reflected in ''West of Suez'',<ref name="Hartnoll" /><ref name="billington" /><ref name="Heilpern Guardian" /> and later in the 1970s he expressed support for [[Enoch Powell]].<ref name="edgar">{{cite news| url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v28/n14/david-edgar/stalking-out | work=The London Review of Books | title=Stalking Out | first=David | last=Edgar | author-link=David Edgar (playwright)| date=20 July 2006 | access-date=18 April 2023}}</ref> In the words of Osborne's biographer Michael Ratcliffe, "he drifted to the libertarian, unorganized right"; even his friend [[David Hare (playwright)|David Hare]] acknowledged that he passed "from passion to prejudice. He was forced back into a position which, finally, for most writers is undignified and unproductive: the pretence that the past is always, necessarily, superior to the present".<ref name="ratcliffe" /><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/jun/04/hayfestival2002.hayfestival | work=The Guardian | title=Look back and marvel at anger of Osborne | first=John | last=Ezard | date=4 June 2002 | access-date=27 May 2023}}</ref> Several commentators have argued that a conservative and nostalgic strain was apparent in Osborne's work from an early stage.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Lewis (biographer)|year=1989 |title=Stage People|location=London |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |pages=52–58 |isbn=0-297-79212-1}}</ref><ref name="mount" /><ref name="edgar" /> As early as 1957, [[Kenneth Tynan]] had noticed "a deeply submerged nostalgia" for Britain's pre-[[WW1]] past in ''The Entertainer''.<ref name=":5">{{cite book |last=Tynan |first=Kenneth |author-link=Kenneth Tynan |date=2007 |editor-last=Shellard |editor-first=Dominic |editor-link=Dominic Shellard |title=Theatre Writings |url=https://archive.org/details/theatrewritings0000tyna_o7o9 |url-access=registration |location=London |publisher=[[Nick Hern Books]] |page=169 |isbn=978-1-85459-050-3}}</ref>

=== Relationships ===
Osborne had many affairs and frequently mistreated his wives and lovers.<ref name="Meyers" /> He was married five times, all except the last being unhappy unions. The first four were marred by frequent affairs and mistreatment of his partners.<ref name="Meyers" /> He outlived three of his wives, being survived only by the first and the last,<ref name="mount" /> both of whom have since died. His final marriage, from 1978 until his death, was to the journalist [[Helen Osborne|Helen Dawson]]. 

==== Pamela Lane (1951–57) ====
Source:<ref name=PamLanobit />

In ''A Better Class of Person'', Osborne describes feeling an immediate and intense attraction towards his first wife, Pamela Lane. The pair were both members of an acting troupe in [[Bridgwater]].<ref name="sierz" />
{{quote|She had just recently shorn her hair down to a defiant auburn stubble and I was impressed by the hostility she had created by this self-isolating act. I was unable to take my eyes from her hair, her huge green eyes which must mock or plead affection, preferably both, at least… She startled and confused me… There was no calculation in my instant obsession.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=239}}.</ref>}}

Though Alison Porter in ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' was based on Pamela,<ref name="sierz" /> Osborne describes Lane's respectable middle-class parents – her father a successful draper, her mother of a family of minor rural gentry<ref>{{cite news|author=John Heilpern |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2010/nov/21/pamela-lane-obituary |title=Pamela Lane obituary |work=The Guardian |date=21 November 2010}}</ref> – as "much coarser", and how at one point they hired a private detective to follow him after a fellow actor was seen 'fumbling' with his knee in a tea shop.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=240-41}}.</ref>

Lane and Osborne married in nearby [[Wells, Somerset|Wells]] and then left Bridgwater the following Sunday amidst an uneasy truce with Lane's parents (Osborne's hated mother was not aware of the union until the couple were divorcing), spending their first night as a married couple together in the [[Cromwell Road]] in [[London]].<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|pp=243-44}}.</ref>

The two lived a fairly itinerant and reasonably happy married existence at first, living at a number of places around London and finding work there at first, then touring, staying in [[Kidderminster]] in Osborne's case. While Lane's acting career flourished in Derby, Osborne's struggled, and she began an affair with Joe Selby, a dental surgeon.<ref name="sierz" />

Osborne spent much of the next two years before their divorce hoping they would reconcile. In 1956, after the opening of ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'', Osborne met Lane at the railway station in [[York]], where she told Osborne of her recent abortion and enquired after his relationship with [[Mary Ure]]. In April 1957, Osborne was granted a divorce from Lane, on the grounds of his adultery.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|pp=43-44}}.</ref> It later emerged that in the 1980s, Lane and Osborne corresponded frequently and met in secret until he became angered by her request for a loan.<ref>Peter Whitebrook (ed.). 2018. ''Dearest Squirrel: The Intimate Letters of John Osborne and Pamela Lane''.  Oberon, pp.416.</ref>

==== Mary Ure (1957–1963) ====
Osborne began a relationship with Ure shortly after meeting her when she was cast as Alison in ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' in 1956, while he was married to Pamela Lane. The affair swiftly progressed; and the two moved in together in Woodfall Road, [[Chelsea, London]]. He wrote later:

{{quote| Mary was one of those unguarded souls who can make themselves understood by penguins or the wildest dervishes .. I was not in love. There was fondness and pleasure, but no groping expectations, just a feeling of fleeting heart's ease. For the present we were both content enough.}}

Eventually, Osborne became jealous and somewhat contemptuous of Ure's stable family background and her relationship with them. He also began to lose regard for her acting abilities.

{{quote|I had stopped concealing from myself, if I ever had, that Mary was not much of an actress. She had a rather harsh voice and a tiny range. }}

There was infidelity on both sides; and, after an affair with [[Robert Webber]], Ure eventually left Osborne for the actor and novelist [[Robert Shaw (actor)|Robert Shaw]].

Osborne described visiting her after she had left him and having sex with her while she was pregnant with the first of four children she would bear to Shaw. Of their divorce, Osborne wrote of being surprised that she repeatedly refused to return to him treasured postcards drawn for him by his father,<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1981|p=90}}.</ref> but is circumspect about her early death in 1975: "Destiny dragged her so pointlessly from a life better contained by the softly lapping waters of the [[River Clyde|Clyde]]."<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=174}}.</ref>

==== Penelope Gilliatt (1963–68) ====
Osborne met his third wife, writer [[Penelope Gilliatt]], initially through social connections, and then through an interview she conducted with him:<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|pp=175-77}}.</ref>
{{quote|It was not so much chastity that troubled me, but the withdrawal of feminine intimacy. And now, here I was, giving a routine interview to a young, animated woman, seemingly very informed and quick to laugh… I was already engaged in the prospect of mild and easy flirtation. I hadn't marked Penelope down in any appraising way as a future sportive fancy, but I had always been addicted to flirtation as a game worth playing for itself.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=177}}.</ref>}}
One great attraction Penelope held for Osborne was her red hair: "Penelope was a redhead, as was Pamela... I took red hair to be the mantle of goddesses".<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=177}}.</ref> Despite her being married and Osborne knowing her husband, Gilliatt set out to seduce Osborne and succeeded in doing so. "Penelope's behaviour and my own during the weeks that followed were probably grotesquely indefensible", he wrote.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|pp=179-80}}.</ref>

Osborne and Gilliatt were together for seven years, five of which they spent married, and became the parents of his only biological child, Nolan.<ref>The name was chosen in honour of [[Captain Nolan]], who led the famous [[Charge of the Light Brigade]] in the [[Crimean War]]. At the time of her birth, Osborne was researching that war and writing the screenplay of the film his next wife would star in ({{harvnb|Osborne|1991|pp=255-9}}).</ref> Osborne had an abusive relationship with his daughter and cast her out of his house when she was 17; they never spoke again.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=421–2}}</ref> Osborne and Gilliatt's marriage suffered through what Osborne perceived to be an unnecessary obsession on her part with her work, writing film reviews for ''[[The Observer]]''. "I tried to point out that it seemed an inordinate amount of time and effort to expend on a thousand-word review to be read by a few thousand film addicts and forgotten almost at once."<ref>{{registration required|date=March 2023}} {{cite news|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/01/the_uneasy_partnership_of_pauline_kael_and_penelope_gilliatt.html|title=The Other Film Critic at the New Yorker|first=Sarah|last=Weinman|author-link=Sarah Weinman|date=January 13, 2012|newspaper=Slate|access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref> Osborne wanted Gilliatt to give up her multiple careers and move with him to a country house where she would tend his needs. Osborne had put a refrigerator in the couple's bedroom and filled it with champagne to alleviate his night terrors. Both began to have struggles with alcoholism.

He treated with contempt what he saw as Gilliatt's growing pretentiousness. "She was to become increasingly obsessed with fripperies and titles … She took to calling herself 'Professor Gilliatt'."<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=240}}.</ref> Strains in the marriage led to Osborne conducting numerous affairs behind her back, including one with his future wife, [[Jill Bennett (British actress)|Jill Bennett]].

==== Jill Bennett (1968–1977) ====
Osborne had a turbulent nine-year marriage to the actress [[Jill Bennett (British actress)|Jill Bennett]]. Their marriage degenerated into mutual abuse with Bennett insulting Osborne, calling him impotent and homosexual in public as early as 1971.<ref name="Heilpern Guardian" /> Osborne showed similar cruelty towards her, breaching a court order by harassing her with abusive messages after their divorce.<ref>{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=394-95, 412-13}}.</ref> Bennett committed suicide in 1990 (having expressed suicidal thoughts for decades): some have blamed this on Osborne's treatment of her.<ref name="Heilpern Guardian" /><ref name="Meyers" /> He said of Bennett, "She was the most evil woman I have come across", and showed open contempt for her suicide.<ref>Heilpern writes ({{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|p=443}}) that the second volume of Osborne's [[autobiography]] was ready to go to press at [[Faber and Faber]]. Bennett's suicide freed Osborne from the [[restraining order]] arising from their bitter divorce. He sat down and wrote a new chapter for the book, specifically to excoriate his ex-wife.</ref>

{{quote|She was a woman so demoniacally possessed by Avarice that she died of it… This final, fumbled gesture, after a lifetime of glad-rags borrowings, theft and plagiarism, must have been one of the few original or spontaneous gestures in her loveless life.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=255}}.</ref>}}

He concluded by stating that his only regret was that he could not "look down upon her open coffin and, like that bird in the [[Book of Tobit]], drop a good, large mess in her eye."<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=259}}.</ref> Reviewing ''Almost a Gentleman'', which contains this passage, [[Hilary Mantel]] commented, "the pious reader may wish to pray, the queasy reader vomit, the prudent reviewer consult the libel laws" (though she did speculate about Osborne's mental health).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v13/n22/hilary-mantel/looking-back-in-anger|title=Looking Back in Anger|date=21 November 1991|accessdate=14 May 2023|author=Mantel, Hilary|author-link=Hilary Mantel|newspaper=London Review of Books}}</ref> [[Michael Billington (critic)|Michael Billington]] called the attack on Bennett a "vicious assault", though he added, "he must have once loved her a lot to have hated her so much".<ref name="billington" />

==== Helen Dawson (1978–1994) ====
[[Helen Osborne|Helen Dawson]] (1939–2004) was a former arts journalist and critic for ''[[The Observer]]''. This final marriage of Osborne's, which lasted until his death, seems to have been happier than any of his prior marriages. Until her death in 2004, Dawson worked to preserve and promote Osborne's legacy.<ref name="helen">{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/helen-osborne-549298.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101210051802/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/helen-osborne-549298.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=10 December 2010 | work=The Independent | location=London | title=Helen Osborne | date=19 January 2004 | access-date=7 May 2010}}</ref>

Osborne died deeply in debt; his final word to Dawson was: "Sorry".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/may/20/featuresreviews.guardianreview7 | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Stage-boor Johnny | first=Blake | last=Morrison | author-link=Blake Morrison | date=20 May 2006 | access-date=7 May 2010}}</ref> After her death in 2004, Dawson was buried next to Osborne.

=== Vegetarianism ===
[[File:JohnOsborne.jpg|thumb|right|Graves of Osborne and his fifth wife in [[Clun]] churchyard]]

Around the time of ''Look Back in Anger'', Osborne was a [[vegetarian]], something which was considered unusual at the time. In ''Almost a Gentleman'' he gives some insight into this lifestyle choice:

{{quote|My own vegetarianism had been prompted by self-interest. I wanted to confound my pitted complexion, implacable daily headaches, throbbing glands, dish-cloth hair and dandruff. That my appearance had marginally improved (though not the headaches) was no doubt due a little to less toxic input… Meat could be equated with inner squalor. Vegetarianism might banish that, too.<ref>{{harvnb|Osborne|1991|p=2}}.</ref>}}

== Death ==
After a serious liver crisis in 1987 Osborne became [[Diabetes mellitus|diabetic]], injecting insulin twice a day. He died on 24 December 1994 at the age of 65 from complications of diabetes at [[The Hurst]], his home in [[Clunton]], near [[Craven Arms]], [[Shropshire]].<ref name=":9">{{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=470–479}}</ref> He is buried in St George's churchyard, [[Clun]], Shropshire. His last wife, Helen Dawson, who died in 2004, is buried next to him.

== Archive ==
Osborne began placing his papers at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas in Austin]] in the 1960s, with additions made throughout his life and by relatives in the years after his death. The primary archive is over 50 boxes and includes typescripts and manuscripts for all of his works, correspondence, newspaper and magazine articles, scrapbooks, posters, programmes, and business documents.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00168|title=John Osborne: A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center|website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu|access-date=2017-12-12}}</ref>

In 2008, the Ransom Center purchased an additional archive of over 30 boxes that had been held by Helen Dawson Osborne. While largely focusing on the latter years of Osborne's life, the collection also includes a series of notebooks that he had kept separately from his original archive.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00604|title=John Osborne and Helen Dawson Osborne: A Preliminary Inventory of Their Papers at the Harry Ransom Center|website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu|access-date=2017-12-12}}</ref>

== Works ==
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Title !! Type !! Year
! class="unsortable"|Notes
|-
| ''The Devil Inside Him'' || Theatre || 1950 || with [[Stella Linden]]
|-
| ''The Great Bear'' || Theatre || 1951 || blank verse, never produced
|-
| ''[[Personal Enemy]]'' || Theatre || 1955 ||with [[Anthony Creighton]]
|-
| ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' || Theatre || 1956 ||
|-
| ''[[The Entertainer (play)|The Entertainer]]'' || Theatre || 1957 ||
|-
| ''[[Epitaph for George Dillon]]'' || Theatre || 1958<ref>Written before ''Look Back In Anger'' but not staged at the Royal Court Theatre until two years later ({{harvnb|Heilpern|2006|pp=108-9}}).</ref> || with [[Anthony Creighton]]
|-
| ''[[The World Of Paul Slickey]]'' || Theatre || 1959 ||
|-
| ''A Subject of Scandal and Concern'' || TV || 1960 ||
|-
| ''[[Luther (play)|Luther]]'' || Theatre || 1961 ||
|-
| ''[[The Blood of the Bambergs]]'' || Theatre || 1962 ||
|-
| ''[[Under Plain Cover]]'' || Theatre || 1962 ||
|-
| ''[[Tom Jones (1963 film)|Tom Jones]]'' || Screenplay || 1963 ||
|-
| ''[[Inadmissible Evidence]]'' || Theatre || 1964 ||
|-
| ''[[A Patriot for Me]]'' || Theatre || 1965 ||
|-
| ''A Bond Honoured'' || Theatre || 1966 || One-act adaptation of [[Lope de Vega]]'s ''La fianza satisfecha''
|-
| ''The Hotel in Amsterdam'' || Theatre || 1968 ||
|-
| ''Time Present'' || Theatre || 1968 ||
|-
| ''[[The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 film)|The Charge of the Light Brigade]]'' || Screenplay || 1968 || Uncredited<ref>Osborne's original screenplay triggered a lawsuit from actor [[Laurence Harvey]] since it freely used material from [[Cecil Woodham-Smith]]'s ''The Reason Why'', a book Harvey owned the rights to. In the film as released, sole writing credit goes to Charles Wood, who (according to director Tony Richardson) had already been hired to do rewrites before the suit ({{harvnb|Richardson|1993|pp=193-95}}).</ref>
|-
| ''[[Inadmissible Evidence (film)|Inadmissible Evidence]]'' || Screenplay || 1968 || Adaptation of his play
|-
| ''[[Play for Today#The Right Prospectus|The Right Prospectus]]'' || TV || 1970 ||
|-
| ''West of Suez'' || Theatre || 1971 ||
|-
| ''A Sense of Detachment'' || Theatre || 1972 ||
|-
| ''The Gift of Friendship'' || TV || 1972 ||
|-
| ''[[Hedda Gabler]]'' || Theatre || 1972 || Ibsen adaptation
|-
| ''A Place Calling Itself Rome'' ||Theatre || 1973 || ''[[Coriolanus (play)|Coriolanus]]'' adaptation, unproduced
|-
| ''Ms, Or Jill And Jack'' || TV || 1974 ||
|-
| ''The End of Me Old Cigar'' || Theatre || 1975 ||
|-
| ''[[The Picture Of Dorian Gray]]'' || Theatre || 1975 || Wilde adaptation
|-
| ''Almost A Vision'' || TV || 1976 ||
|-
| ''Watch It Come Down'' || Theatre || 1976 ||
|-
| ''Try A Little Tenderness'' || Theatre || 1978 || unproduced
|-
| ''Very Like A Whale'' || TV || 1980 ||
|-
| ''You're Not Watching Me, Mummy'' || TV || 1980 ||
|-
| ''[[A Better Class of Person]]'' || Book || 1981 || autobiography volume I
|-
| ''A Better Class of Person'' || TV || 1985 || TV version of the above.<ref name = "O'Connor" />
|-
| ''[[God Rot Tunbridge Wells!]]'' || TV || 1985 ||
|-
| ''[[The Father (Osborne play)|The Father]]'' || Theatre || 1989 || Strindberg adaptation
|-
| ''Almost a Gentleman'' || Book || 1991 || autobiography volume II
|-
| ''[[Déjàvu]]'' || Theatre || 1992 ||
|-
| ''England, My England'' || TV || 1995 || Osborne's script was unfinished at his death and completed by [[Charles Wood (playwright)|Charles Wood]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://variety.com/1995/film/reviews/england-my-england-1200443778/ | work=Variety | title=England, My England | first=Derek | last=Elley | date=19 November 1995 | access-date=26 March 2023}}</ref><ref name="wake" />
|}

=== Filmography ===
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Title !! Year !! Role !! Notes
|-
| ''[[First Love (1970 film)|First Love]]'' || 1970 || Maidanov ||
|-
| ''[[The Chairman's Wife]]'' || 1971 || Bernard Howe ||
|-
|''[[Get Carter]]'' || 1971 || Cyril Kinnear ||
|-
|''[[Tomorrow Never Comes (film)|Tomorrow Never Comes]]'' || 1978|| Lyne ||
|-
|''[[Flash Gordon (film)|Flash Gordon]]'' || 1980 || Arborian Priest ||
|}

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== References ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Heilpern |first=John |author-link=John Heilpern |title=John Osborne: A Patriot for Us |url=https://archive.org/details/johnosbornepatri0000heil |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7011-6780-6 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Little |first1=Ruth |last2=McLaughlin |first2=Emily |title=The Royal Court Theatre Inside Out |publisher=Oberon Books |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-84002-763-1 }}
* {{cite book |last=Osborne |first=John |title=A Better Class of Person: An Autobiography, 1929–56 |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |year=1981 |isbn=0-571-11785-6 |edition=hardback }}
* {{cite book |last=Osborne |first=John |title=Almost a Gentleman: An Autobiography, 1955–66 |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |year=1991 |isbn=0-571-16635-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/almostgentlemana0000osbo |edition=paperback }}
* {{cite book |last=Osborne |first=John |title=Damn You, England: Collected Prose |url=https://archive.org/details/damnyouenglandco0000osbo |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |year=1994 |isbn=0-571-16921-X |edition=hardback }}
* {{cite book |last=Osborne |first=John |year=1957 |editor-last=Maschler |editor-first=Tom |editor-link=Tom Maschler |title=Declaration: Essays by Young Writers |publisher=[[Hart-Davis, MacGibbon|MacGibbon & Kee]] |pages=61–84 |chapter=They Call It Cricket}}
* {{cite book |last=Richardson | first=Tony |author-link=Tony Richardson |title=Long Distance Runner: A Memoir |url=https://archive.org/details/longdistancerunn00rich |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Eyre Methuen]] |year=1993 |isbn=0-413-39330-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Wardle | first=Irving |author-link=Irving Wardle |title=The Theatres of George Devine |url=https://archive.org/details/theatresofgeorge0000ward |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Faber and Faber]] |year=1978 |isbn=0-571-16852-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Whitebrook |first=Peter |title=John Osborne: 'Anger is not about...' |publisher=[[Oberon Books]] |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-78319-877-1 |edition=hardback }}
* [http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsO/osborne-john.html Doollee.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130806062511/http://doollee.com/PlaywrightsO/osborne-john.html |date=6 August 2013 }}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/private-lives/relationships/collections1/parliament-and-the-1960s/joint-committee-theatre-censorship/ Parliament & the 1960s - 1966 Theatre Censorship Committee - UK Parliament Living Heritage]
* [http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00168 John Osborne Papers] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* [http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00604 John Osborne and Helen Dawson Osborne Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]]
* [https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections-explore/230479 Select Papers of the English Stage Company] at the [[University of Leeds]]
* {{Wikiquote-inline|John Osborne}}
* {{Screenonline name|id=452881|name=John Osborne}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110628182920/http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2010articles/article2.html/ 'A Poor Jonah': John Osborne's Roads to Freedom] describing the discovery of John Osborne's pre-''Look Back in Anger'' plays at the [http://www.bl.uk/ British Library]
* {{NPG name}}

{{John Osborne}}
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| title = Awards for John Osborne
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{{AcademyAwardBestAdaptedScreenplay 1961–1980}}
{{BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay}}
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{{Angry young men}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Osborne, John}}
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