Sir Ronald Harwood was a South African-born British playwright and screenwriter.
He is best known for writing the play The Dresser, which debuted in London's West End in 1980, went to Broadway one year later, and was adapted by Harwood into a film starring Albert Finney in 1983.
He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Dresser, won the Oscar for penning The Pianist (2002), and was nominated yet again for Le scaphandre et le papillon (2008).
Harwood also wrote A Fine Romance (1970) starring Julie Andrews, Being Julia (2004) with Annette Bening, Love in the Time of Cholera (2007), Australia (2008), and Quartet (2012) starring Maggie Smith.
For television, he wrote on the series Playdate, ITV Television Playhouse, Knock on Any Door, Tales of the Unexpected, All the World's a Stage, and Television Theater.
Harwood died September 8, 2020, in Sussex, England. He was 85.