Arthur Wing Pinero

Sir Arthur Wing Pinero (1855-1934) was an English playwright who began his working life as an actor. Active from the 1870s into the 1920s, he became one of the most produced dramatists in London, writing mainly in English. His plays remain a useful guide to Victorian and Edwardian comedy and to the social drama of his time.

The son of a London solicitor from a family of Sephardic descent, Pinero left a clerk's post to study elocution and join the stage. He made his professional debut in Edinburgh in 1874 and spent about five years as a supporting player in Henry Irving's company at the Lyceum. Meanwhile he was writing short comedies and, in time, full-length plays. By the early 1880s he had given up acting to write full-time.

His first real triumph came with farce, above all The Magistrate (1885), which ran for an unusually long period at the Court Theatre. In the 1890s he turned to serious subjects, tackling the double standards imposed on women in plays such as The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1893). The play shocked some audiences but made money. He later produced comedies such as Trelawny of the 'Wells' and The Gay Lord Quex. An opera libretto, The Beauty Stone, was less successful.

He was knighted in 1909. As the years passed his manner came to seem old-fashioned, and his later plays did poorly. Today he is remembered chiefly for the comedies and society dramas of the 1880s and 1890s, which are revived from time to time and have been filmed. His legacy lies partly in giving substantial leading roles to women at a time when few dramatists did so.