Anthony Shaffer (writer)
{{Short description|English writer}}
{{For|the U.S. intelligence officer|Anthony Shaffer (intelligence officer)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2015}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Anthony Shaffer
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Anthony Joshua Shaffer
| birth_date = 15 May 1926
| birth_place = Liverpool, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2001|11|6|1926|5|15}}
| death_place = London, England
| resting_place = Highgate Cemetery, London
| occupation = Playwright, screenwriter, novelist, barrister, advertising executive
| spouse = {{marriage|Henrietta J. Glaskie|1954||end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Carolyn Soley||end=divorced}}
{{marriage|Diane Cilento|1985}}
| children = 2
| relatives = Peter Shaffer (brother)
}}
Anthony Joshua Shaffer (15 May 1926{{spaced ndash}}6 November 2001){{cite news |last1=Lewis |first1=Paul |title=Anthony Shaffer, 75, Author Of Long-Running 'Sleuth,' Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/theater/anthony-shaffer-75-author-of-long-running-sleuth-dies.html |access-date=3 January 2020 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=12 November 2001 |pages=F7}} was a British playwright, screenwriter, novelist, barrister, and advertising executive. He is best remembered for his Tony Award winning play Sleuth, and its acclaimed 1972 film adaptation. His screenplays included Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy and folk horror The Wicker Man.
Early life
Shaffer was born to a Jewish family in Liverpool, the son of Reka (née Fredman) and Jack Shaffer, who was an estate agent with his wife's family.[http://www.filmreference.com/film/95/Anthony-Shaffer.html Film Reference bio][http://www.forward.com/articles/14301/ www.forward.com] He was the identical twin brother of writer and dramatist Peter Shaffer, and they had another brother, Brian. He graduated with a law degree from Trinity College, Cambridge.
Career
Shaffer worked as a barrister and advertising copywriter before becoming a full-time writer.[https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/nov/07/news.nigelfountain Obituary] in The Guardian, 7 November 2001
Shaffer's most notable work was the play Sleuth (1970), which won the Tony Award for Best Play. The play was later adapted for the film version starring Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. He received Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America for both versions: for Best Play in 1971, and Best Screenplay in 1973.
His other major screenplays include the Hitchcock thriller Frenzy (1972) and the British cult thriller The Wicker Man (1973) with whose director, Robin Hardy, Shaffer had previously set up a television production company Hardy, Shaffer & Associates.{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Allan|title=Inside the Wicker Man: How Not to Make a Cult Classic|date=2012|publisher=Birlinn|location=New York|isbn=9780857902177}}
Personal life
File:Grave of Anthony Shaffer in Highgate Cemetery.jpg]]
Shaffer was married three times – to Henrietta Glaskie, Carolyn Soley (with whom he had two children, Claudia and Cressida), and Australian actress Diane Cilento.
Shaffer met Cilento in 1973, when she appeared in The Wicker Man. He moved to Australia in 1975 and married Cilento in 1985. Together they built a house (The Castle) and a theatre (The Karnak Playhouse). Shaffer was legally domiciled in Australia (where he owned land and a restaurant, paid taxes and voted in elections), although he did maintain a flat in London.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1453901/Shaffers-lover-fails-in-battle-over-his-estate.html "Shaffer's lover fails in battle over his estate"]. Article of 10 February 2004 by Sean O'Neill in The Daily Telegraph
In the last years of his life Shaffer had an extramarital relationship with Marie Josette "JoJo" Capece-Minutolo when in London. Cilento did not accompany Shaffer to England but remained in Australia. After Shaffer's death, Capece-Minutolo made a claim on his estate in the British High Court, arguing that Shaffer had intended to divorce Cilento and marry her and that he had given her an engagement ring. The Shaffer estate argued that Shaffer had no desire to end his marriage to Cilento. The judge found that despite Shaffer's being in "an intimate and loving relationship" with Capece in London, Shaffer and his estate were not legally domiciled in the United Kingdom at the time of his death, and that therefore Capece-Minutolo had no legal claims on his estate, other than any bequest in Shaffer's will, which had been changed in 1999.{{cite news |title=Playwright's family fight off mistress's claim to share legacy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/10/arts.artsnews |newspaper=The Guardian |date=10 February 2004 |access-date=14 March 2017}}
Bibliography
=Novels=
- {{cite book
| first1=Peter
| last1=Anthony
| date=1951
| title=Woman In The Wardrobe
| publisher=British Library Crime Classics
| isbn=978-0712353465
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=Peter
| last1=Anthony
| date=1952
| title=How Doth The Little Crocodile
| publisher=Evans Brothers Limited
| isbn=
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=A. & P.
| last1=Shaffer
| date=1955
| title=Withered Murder
| publisher=Macmillan
| isbn=978-1135775995
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=A. & P.
| last1=Shaffer
| date=1979
| title=Absolution
| publisher=Corgi Transworld Pub
| isbn=978-0552110822
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| first2=Robin
| last2=Hardy
| date=1979
| title=The Wicker Man
| publisher=Crown Publishers
| isbn=978-0517532591
}}
=Plays=
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| date=1963
| title=The Savage Parade
| publisher=Amber Lane
| isbn=978-0906399873
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| date=1970
| title=Sleuth
| publisher=S. Frech
| isbn=978-0573140198
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| date=1975
| title=Murderer: A Play in Two Acts
| publisher=Marion Boyars Publishers, Ltd.
| isbn=978-0714525440
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| date=1977
| title=Whodunnit
| publisher=Samuel French, Ltd.
| isbn=978-0714525440
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| date=1986
| title=Widow's Weeds or For Years I Couldn't Wear My Black
| publisher=Samuel French, Inc.
| isbn=978-0573690808
}}
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| date=2001
| title=The Thing in the Wheelchair
| publisher=
| isbn=
}}
=Memoir=
- {{cite book
| first1=Anthony
| last1=Shaffer
| date=2001
| title=So What Did You Expect?: A Memoir
| publisher= Picador
| isbn=978-0330390439
}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes |
|---|
| 1971
| Mr. Forbush and the Penguins | rowspan="12" | Screenwriter | a.k.a. Cry of the Penguins |
| rowspan="2" | 1972
| Frenzy | |
| Sleuth
| |
| 1973
| |
| 1974
| Murder on the Orient Express | Uncredited{{cite news|last=Lewis|first=Paul|title=Anthony Shaffer, 75, Author Of Long-Running 'Sleuth,' Dies|date=12 November 2001|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/theater/anthony-shaffer-75-author-of-long-running-sleuth-dies.html|access-date=22 June 2014}}{{Cite book | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=THpkAgAAQBAJ&q=anthony+shaffer+murder+on+the+orient+express&pg=PA249|title =Jolly Good Detecting: Humor in English Crime Fiction of the Golden Age| isbn = 9781476613963 | last1 =Shaw| first1 =Bruce|year=2013|publisher =McFarland}} |
| rowspan="2" | 1978
| |
| Absolution
| |
| 1980 |
| 1982
| rowspan="3" | Co-Writer |
| 1985 |
| 1988 |
| 1993
| |
Television
| class="wikitable"
!Year !Title !Role !Notes |
| 1969
|Pig In The Middle |Writer |Broadcast by Harlech Television (HTV){{Cite web |title=Anthony Shaffer - Playwright |url=https://anthonyshaffer.com |access-date=2025-01-16 |website=Anthony Shaffer - Playwright |language=en}} |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0787289|Anthony Shaffer}}
- [https://anthonyshaffer.com/ The Life & Work of Anthony Shaffer]
- [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1361694/Anthony-Shaffer.html telegraph.co.uk]
- [https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,3604,589481,00.html Obituary] in The Guardian (8 November 2001)
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/12/theater/anthony-shaffer-75-author-of-long-running-sleuth-dies.html nytimes.com]
{{Anthony Shaffer}}
{{Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shaffer, Anthony}}
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Category:English identical twins
Category:Jewish English writers
Category:English male screenwriters
Category:Jewish dramatists and playwrights
Category:Writers from Liverpool
Category:English male dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century English dramatists and playwrights
Category:Burials at Highgate Cemetery