HAROLD PINTER
Harold Pinter was born in Hackney, a working-class neighborhood in London's East End, the son of a Jewish tailor. On the outbreak of World War II he was evacuated from the city; he returned to London when he was 14. "The condition of being bombed has never left me," Pinter later said. At school Pinter particularly read the works of Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway. He was educated at Hackney Downs Grammar School where he acted in school productions.
In 1950 Pinter started to publish poems in Poetry (London) under the name Harold Pinta. He worked as a bit-part actor on a BBC Radio program, Focus on Football Pools. He studied for a short time at the Central School of Speech and Drama and toured Ireland from 1951 to 1952. In 1953 he appeared during Donald Wolfit's 1953 season at the King's Theatre in Hammersmith.