Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL (born Tomáš Straussler, born 3 July 1937) is a Czechoslovakian-born British screenwriter and playwright. He has written several plays, screenplays, and one novel. Perhaps his most recognizable works is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, an existentialist tragicomedy centered on two minor characters from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. His other "bardolotrous" work is the screenplay Shakespeare in Love with Marc Norman.
Tom Stoppard's work Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was still popular a century after its first performance. In 2066, a troupe of actors arrived in London to celebrate the play's centennial. By means unknown, they were transported back to 1606, where they had no choice but to continue to perform at The Rose to earn a living. Among the plays they performed was Stoppard's play.
William Shakespeare initially took issues with Stoppard's use of his work Hamlet, but after watching Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, soon appreciated Stoppard's skill as a writer, and grew reflective about his own work. Wanting to meet Stoppard, he was befuddled to learn that Stoppard was at least three centuries unborn.
