John Osborne John Osborne John James Osborne (Fulham, London, 12 December 1929 – 24 December 1994) was an English playwright, screenwriter and actor, known for his excoriating prose and intense critical stance towards established social and political norms. The success of his 1956 play "Look Back in Anger" transformed English theatre. In a productive life of more than 40 years, Osborne explored many themes and genres, writing for stage, film and TV. His personal life was extravagant and iconoclastic. He was notorious for the ornate violence of his language, not only on behalf of the political causes he supported but also against
John F. Osborne the 1950s. After returning to the United States, he lived in Georgetown and in Sag Harbor, Long Island, New York. He later became senior editor at "New Republic". Osborne won the Polk Award for magazine journalism in 1973. His work landed him on the first Nixon's Enemies List, a limited master list of famous people that President Nixon considered his direct political opponents. He married twice. His widow, Gertrude (Trudi) McCullough Osborne, the daughter of an Indiana senator, was also a writer. She died in Washington, D.C. in 1994. She was the mother of his only child, John F. Osborne