Peter Shaffer 1990. "Lettice and Lovage" also enabled Margaret Tyzack to win the award for best featured actress, and the production was nominated for best direction of a play, at the 1990 Tony Awards. Several of Shaffer's plays have been adapted to film, including "Five Finger Exercise" (1962), "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" (1969), "The Public Eye" (1962), from which he adapted the 1972 film "Follow Me!" (1972), "Equus" (1977), and "Amadeus" (1984), which won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture. Shaffer received two Academy Award nominations for adapting his plays "Equus" and "Amadeus" for the big screen. For writing the
Peter Shaffer Bevin Boy coal miner during World War II, and took a number of jobs including bookstore clerk, and assistant at the New York Public Library, before discovering his dramatic talents. Shaffer's first play, "The Salt Land" (1954), was presented on the BBC. Encouraged by this success, Shaffer continued to write and established his reputation as a playwright in 1958, with the production of "Five Finger Exercise", which opened in London under the direction of John Gielgud and won the Evening Standard Drama Award. When "Five Finger Exercise" moved to New York City in 1959, it was equally well received and