John Osborne (1929-1994), Playwright, autobiographer and actor

John (James) Osborne

Sitter in 19 portraits
Playwright and actor. Osborne burst onto the scene with his controversial first play Look Back in Anger , which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on 8 May 1956. This seminal work, with its protagonist Jimmy Porter, the 'angry young man', irreversibly changed the course of British drama and put the Court on the map as a home for rebellious young writers. Further plays at the Court included The Entertainer (1957), Epitaph for George Dillon (with Anthony Creighton, 1958) and Inadmissible Evidence (1964).