Full Name: Samuel Beckett [Samuel Barclay Beckett]
Profession: Playwright, novelist, and poet
Why Famous: One of the most influential and widely-discussed avant-garde writers of the 20th century. His most famous plays, "Waiting for Godot", "Endgame" and "Happy Days", display his absurdist, anti-realist traditions.
Despite speaking English as his first language, Beckett wrote all his major works in French as he believed it forced him to be more disciplined.
- 1961-03-25 Playwright Samuel Beckett (54) weds Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil on a secret civil ceremony in England
- 1953-01-05 Samuel Beckett's "En Attendant Godot" premieres in Paris
- 1955-03-06 Dutch premiere of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot"
- 1957-01-13 "All that Fall", first radio play by Samuel Beckett, aired on BBC Third Programme
- 1957-04-03 Samuel Beckett's "Endgame" premieres in London
- 1961-09-17 Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days," premieres in NYC