Athol Fugard, OIS, HonFRSL (11 June 1932 – 8 March 2025) was a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright.

Biography

Extracted from Wikipedia contributors, "Athol Fugard," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed March 10, 2025).

Acclaimed in 1985 as "the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world" by Time,[3] he published more than thirty plays. He was best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid, some of which have been adapted to film. His novel Tsotsi was adapted as a film of the same name, which won an Academy Award in 2005. It was directed by Gavin Hood.[4]

Fugard also served as an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego.[5]

Fugard received many awards, honours, and honorary degrees, including the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver from the government of South Africa in 2005 "for his excellent contribution and achievements in the theatre".[6] He was also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[7] Fugard was honoured in Cape Town with the opening in 2010 of the Fugard Theatre in District Six.[8] He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement in 2011.[9]

Early life and education

Fugard was born as Harold Athol Lanigan Fugard, in Middelburg, Cape Province (now Eastern Cape), Union of South Africa, on 11 June 1932. His mother, Marrie (née Potgieter), an Afrikaner, operated a general store and then a lodging house; his father, Harold Fugard, of Irish, English and French Huguenot descent, was a former jazz pianist who had become disabled.[4][10][11]

In 1935, his family moved to Port Elizabeth.[12] In 1938, he began attending primary school at Marist Brothers College.[13] After being awarded a scholarship, Fugard enrolled at a local technical college for secondary education. He studied Philosophy and Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town,[14] but he dropped out of the university in 1953, a few months before final examinations.[4]

Personal life and death

In 1958, the Fugards moved to Johannesburg, where he worked as a clerk in a Native Commissioners' Court. He became "keenly aware of the injustices of apartheid."[4] His good friendship with prominent local anti-apartheid figures had a profound influence on Fugard. His plays' political expression brought him into conflict with the national government; to avoid prosecution, he had his plays produced and published outside South Africa.[16][24] Fugard struggled with alcohol for a time but was a teetotaler since the early 1980s.[53]

For several years in the late 20th century, Fugard lived in San Diego, California,[54] where he taught as an adjunct professor of playwriting, acting, and directing in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).[5][24] For the academic year 2000–2001, he taught at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, as the IU Class of 1963 Wells Scholar Professor.[55]

Although increasingly unhappy with the course of post-Apartheid politics – he regarded as a tragedy that Nelson Mandela had not taken a second term as President to and "entrench his vision" – [56] in 2012 Fugard returned to South Africa.[57][58]

After almost 60 years of marriage, Athol and Sheila Fugard divorced in 2015. The following year, Fugard married Paula Fourie, a younger South African writer and academic.[59] The couple lived in the Cape Winelands region of South Africa with their two children, daughter Halle and son Lanigan.[1][60][61]

Fugard died at his home in Stellenbosch, Western Cape, on 8 March 2025, at the age of 92.[62][29] In 2006, Fugard had reserved a grave plot for himself in Nieu-Bethesda, a village in the Karoo where he had a home; the Owl House, a museum in Nieu-Bethesda showcasing the works of artist Helen Martins, inspired his play The Road to Mecca. He had also expressed the wish to have his gravestone inscribed with the remark of a black child he had passed on an uphill run in the Karoo: "Hou so aan, Oubaas – jy kom eerste!" ("Keep going, boss – you’re coming first!").[63]

References

1. "Renowned playwright Athol Fugard dies, aged 92" 09 March 2025 - 16:57 By TimesLIVE. < timeslive.co.za > Renowned South African playwright, actor and director Athol Fugard has died at his Stellenbosch home after a long illness. ... Fugard's first marriage to actress and novelist Sheila Meiring, with whom he had daughter Lisa, ended after more than five decades. His daughter, who moved to the US in 1980, is also a writer. Fugard returned to South Africa after a stint in the US. ... Fugard celebrated his 92nd birthday in June last year with his second wife, academic and playwright Paula Fourie, with whom he had two children, Halle and Lanigan.
2. "Athol Fugard, South African Playwright Who Dissected Apartheid, Dies at 92." (Updated March 10, 2025) < nytimes.com > In works that included “Blood Knot,” “Sizwe Banzi Is Dead” and “The Island,” he exposed the realities of racial separatism in his homeland.
3. "Playwright Athol Fugard Has Died at 92." (By Molly Higgins, March 10, 2025) < playbill.com > The South African playwright was known for his works criticizing racism and apartheid, including Blood Knot and "Master Harold"...and the Boys.
4. OIS. The Order of Ikhamanga is a South African civilian honour that recognises achievements in arts, culture, literature, music, journalism, and sports.[1] Before the order was established on 30 November 2003, such achievements were recognised by the Order of the Baobab. The Order of Ikhamanga is granted by the President of South Africa to South African citizens. Ikhamanga is the Xhosa name for Strelitzia reginae, a flower. Recipients: Athol Fugard, Silver, 2005, Theatre.
5. Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science, and medical science".[1] Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to the cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000),[32] Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015).[33] Honorary Fellows are entitled to use the post nominal letters HonFRS.[34]