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Robert Oxton Bolt (1924 –1995) was born in Sale, Cheshire. He attended the University of Manchester, and, after war service, the University of Exeter. First he taught English and history then, at the age of 33, he became a full-time writer after his success for the play The Flowering Cherry staged in London in 1958. His masterpiece (capolavoro) was A Man for All Seasons,about Sir Thomas More’s conflict with King Henry VIII over his divorce from Catherine of Aragon which was adapted as a film version, like most of his writings. Bolt was known for dramatic works that placed their protagonists in tension with the prevailing society. He developed this topic in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) where the protagonist is presented as a rebel both in English and
Arab society. Bolt himself was imprisoned for protesting nuclear proliferation and was sentenced to one month in prison because of this. He spent only two weeks forced to sign a declaration that he would not engage in such activities( non si sarebbe coinvolto in attività di questo tipo) again by the producer of the Lawrence film, Sam Spiegel – a decision that Bolt then regretted. Other successes were Doctor Zhivago, from Boris Pasternak’s novel and The Bounty written after a stroke (infarto) which affected his movement, and his speech. Bolt’s final produced script was Political Animal, later made into the TV movie Without Warning: The James Brady Story (1991), about the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Bolt died in 1955 at 70 following a long illness (lunga malattia).