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 Osborne Common Prayer (he had returned to the Church of England in about 1974). In his latter years, Osborne published two remarkably frank volumes of autobiography, "A Better Class of Person" (Osborne, 1981) and "Almost a Gentleman" (Osborne, 1991). "A Better Class of Person" (1985) was filmed by Thames Television featuring Eileen Atkins and Alan Howard as his parents and Gary Capelin and Neil McPherson as Osborne. It was nominated for the Prix Italia. At his memorial service in 1995, a playwright of the next generation, David Hare, said: His last play was "Déjàvu" (1991), a sequel to "Look Back in