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Samuel Beckett

(1906-1989), Playwright

Samuel Barclay Beckett

Sitter in 42 portraits
Born in Dublin Beckett studied modern European Literature at Trinity College, Dublin (1923-1927). From 1932 he lived mainly in Paris becoming closely associated with James Joyce. His plays and novels, mostly written first in French, deliver a reductive view of human existence, and have been internationally influential. They include the novel trilogy Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1951) and The Unnamable (1953), and the plays Waiting for Godot (premiered in Paris in 1953 and first staged in London in 1955), Endgame (1957), Krapp's Last Tape(1959), Happy Days (1961) and Not I(1973). Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.

Watch a film clip on the sitter from the BBC Archive in the Media section below

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Samuel Beckett
by Brassaï (Gyula Halász)
NPG P1689

Samuel Beckett
by Henri Cartier-Bresson
NPG P721

Samuel Beckett
by Dmitri Kasterine
NPG P1323

Samuel Beckett
by Avigdor Arikha
NPG 5100

Samuel Beckett
by Jane Bown
NPG P373

Samuel Beckett
by Paul Joyce
NPG P157

Samuel Beckett
by Tom Phillips
NPG 6467

Samuel Beckett
by Peter Keen
NPG x88866

Samuel Beckett
by Michael Peto
NPG x137676

'Encore Magazine' (Samuel Beckett)
by Jerry Bauer
NPG x136874

Samuel Beckett
by Unknown photographer
NPG x194046

Samuel Beckett
by Unknown photographer
NPG x198373

Samuel Beckett
by John Haynes
NPG x200698

Samuel Beckett
by John Minihan
NPG x29010

Samuel Beckett
by John Minihan
NPG x28989

Samuel Beckett
by John Minihan
NPG x32122

Samuel Beckett
by John Minihan
NPG x28990

Samuel Beckett
by Hugo Jehle
NPG x31097

Samuel Beckett
by John Minihan
NPG x29012

Samuel Beckett
by John Minihan
NPG x33599

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Samuel Beckett

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