Pinter, Harold

English author, poet, playwright and actor. Harold Pinter was born in Hackney in London's East End as the only child of Frances and Jack Pinter, a Jewish tailor. During the war he was evacuated to Cornwall in southwest England. The war and anti-Semitism were major influences on his later view of the world. Pinter started to write poetry at the age of twelve; one of his poems was published in the school magazine in 1947. He was introduced to drama at Hackney Grammar School, which he attended between 1944 and 1948. One of Pinter's great role models was his English teacher, Joseph Brearley, who directed school plays in which he participated and with whom he was able discuss literature.