Biography
Alan Bennett was born in Leeds in 1934, the son of a butcher, and studied history at Exeter College, Oxford, on a scholarship, afterwards teaching medieval history at the university for several years. He became famous at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival with the satirical revue Beyond the Fringe, which he wrote and performed with Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and Jonathan Miller and which went on to London and New York. His first stage play, Forty Years On, starring John Gielgud, followed in 1968; later works include Single Spies (1988), The Madness of George III, The Lady in the Van and The History Boys (2004). For television he wrote plays such as An Englishman Abroad (1983) and the monologue series Talking Heads (1988). Several of his plays were filmed, and his screenplay for The Madness of King George (1994) earned him an Academy Award nomination. His honours include four Laurence Olivier Awards, four BAFTA Awards and two Tony Awards; The History Boys won the Olivier and Tony Awards for Best Play.
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