Elisabeth Rohm
German-American actress
Alan Bennett is an acclaimed English playwright, author, actor, and screenwriter. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. Bennett is known for his diverse works, from stage plays like ‘The Madness of George III’ to dramatic monologues like ‘Talking Heads’ on BBC1.
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About the Alan Bennett
Alan Bennettis an English actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter. Over his entertainment career he has received numerous awards and honours including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. He also earned an Academy Award nomination for his film The Madness of King George (1994). In 2005 he received the Society of London Theatre Special Award.
Bennett was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University, where he studied history and performed with the Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research medieval history at the university for several years. His collaboration as writer and performer with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook in the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame and later a Special Tony Award. He gave up academia, and turned to writing full time, his first stage play, Forty Years On, being produced in 1968. He also became known for writing dramatic monologues Talking Heads which ran in 1988 and 1999 on BBC1 earning a British Academy Television Award.
Bennett gained acclaim with his various plays at the Royal National Theatre. He received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Play for Single Spies in 1990. Next, he made his breakthrough with the play The Madness of George III in 1992. For this play, he received a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. The following year he staged a theatrical production of the BBC series Talking Heads in 1992. He continued receiving acclaim for his plays The Lady in the Van in 1999, The History Boys in 2004, and The Habit of Art in 2009. He won his second Tony Award for Best Play for The History Boys in 2005. The following plays were later adapted into films, The Madness of King George (1994), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, The History Boys (2005), and The Lady in the Van (2015).
Bennett is also known for a wide variety of audio books, including his readings of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Winnie-the-Pooh.
Frequently Asked Questions
Alan Bennett has received numerous awards and honours, including two BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. He also earned an Academy Award nomination for his film ‘The Madness of King George’.
Alan Bennett was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University, where he studied history and performed with the Oxford Revue.
Alan Bennett’s collaboration with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, and Peter Cook in the satirical revue ‘Beyond the Fringe’ at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame and later a Special Tony Award.
Alan Bennett is known for his acclaimed plays, including ‘Forty Years On’, ‘The Madness of George III’, ‘The Lady in the Van’, ‘The History Boys’, and ‘The Habit of Art’.
In addition to his plays, Alan Bennett is also known for writing dramatic monologues ‘Talking Heads’ for BBC1 and for a wide variety of audio books, including his readings of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’.
15 Quotes by Alan Bennett
- 1.
Life is like a box of sardines and we are all looking for the key.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 2.
Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 3.
Cancer, like any other illness, is a bore.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 4.
We were put to Dickens as children but it never quite took. That unremitting humanity soon had me cheesed off.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 5.
My films are about embarrassment.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 6.
If you think squash is a competitive activity, try flower arranging.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 7.
I’m all in favour of free expression provided it’s kept rigidly under control.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 8.
Children always assume the sexual lives of their parents come to a grinding halt at their conception.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 9.
Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 10.
Your whole life is on the other side of the glass. And there is nobody watching.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 11.
We started off trying to set up a small anarchist community, but people wouldn’t obey the rules.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 12.
I’ve never seen the point of the sea, except where it meets the land. The shore has a point. The sea has none.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 13.
Were we closer to the ground as children, or is the grass emptier now?
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 14.
I write plays about things that I can’t resolve in my mind. I try to root things out.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter
- 15.
Life is generally something that happens elsewhere.
Alan BennettEnglish actor, author, playwright, and screenwriter