George Bernard Shaw biography

George Bernard Shaw

At Writers Theatre: Arms and the Man, Candida, Heartbreak House, Misalliance, The Doctor's Dilemma, Two by Shaw: Village Wooing & Man of Destiny

George Bernard Shaw was the most celebrated and influential Irish playwright of his generation. In a career that spanned seven decades, he wrote over 60 plays, of which many have entered the canon of Western drama. His plays include Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, Caesar and Cleopatra, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, The Doctor's Dilemma, Misalliance, Androcles and the Lion, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House and Saint Joan. Born in Dublin in 1856, Shaw moved to London at the age of 20 and began writing criticism before garnering major success as a playwright. He was a socialist and an active member of the Fabian society. Shaw is also the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938 for Pygmalion). His success had made him a household name in the English-speaking world by the time he passed away in 1950 at the age of 94.

[Bio as of June 2011]