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George Bernard Shaw won the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature and the 1938 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. His play Pygmalion became the basis for the musical My Fair Lady 1964. A founding member of the Fabian Society, he used his plays to critique society with wit and humor.
Names, aliases, and relatives of George Bernard Shaw — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
George Bernard Shaw by the numbers — life, work, and family.
George Bernard Shaw — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
On July 26, 1856, George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw and George Carr Shaw. His two sisters were Elinor Agnes and Lucinda Frances. His education was irregular, though he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His family’s financial struggles and his mother’s influence as a singer shaped his early worldview.
Shaw’s career as a playwright began in the 1890s with Mrs. Warren Profession in 1893 and Arms and the Man in 1892. His 1913 play Pygmalion was adapted into the 1938 film, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He later supervised film adaptations of Major Barbara in 1941 and Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945. Shaw’s plays are known for their social critique and Shavian wit. He wrote prolifically as a critic and political author.
Shaw married Charlotte Payne Townshend in 1898. The couple lived at Ayot St. Lawrence in Hertfordshire. He died there on November 2, 1950, from kidney failure complicated by a fall from a ladder while trimming a tree. He was a lifelong friend of Harpo Marx, a teetotaler and vegetarian, and supported women suffrage and other progressive causes.
Shaw was the first person to win both a Nobel Prize 1925 and an Oscar 1938. His plays are performed worldwide, and the adjective Shavian describes his style. His ideas on socialism and pacifism are still discussed. Today he is known for Pygmalion and its musical adaptation My Fair Lady.
The complete filmography of George Bernard Shaw — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by George Bernard Shaw — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
George Bernard Shaw's bibliography — every authored, edited, and co-written book, ranked by edition count.
A wall of memorable lines from George Bernard Shaw — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
He Who Can, Does. He Who Cannot Teaches.
The Golden Rule Is That There Are No Golden Rules.
I’m Only a Beer Teetotaller, Not a Champagne Teetotaller.
Nothing Is Ever Done in This World Until Men Are Prepared to Kill One Another If It Is Not Done.
There Are Two Tragedies in Life. One Is Not to Get Your Heart’s Desire. the Other Is to Get It.
There Is No Love Sincerer Than the Love of Food.
A Lifetime of Happiness! No Man Alive Could Bear It: It Would Be Hell on Earth.
I Am a Gentleman: I Live by Robbing the Poor.
An Englishman Thinks He Is Moral When He Is Only Uncomfortable.
Do Not Unto Others as You Would They Should Do Unto You. Their Tastes May Not Be the Same.
Marriage Is Popular Because It Combines the Maximum of Temptation with the Maximum of Opportunity.
Hell Is Full of Musical Amateurs: Music Is the Brandy of the Damned.
It’s a Woman’s Business to Get Married as Soon as Possible, and a Man’s to Keep Unmarried as Long as He Can
Democracy Substitutes Election by the Incompetent Many for Appointment by the Corrupt Few.
Liberty Means Responsibility. That’s Why Most Men Dread It.
Assassination Is the Extreme Form of Censorship.
The Theory of Legal Procedure Is That If You Set Two Liars to Expose One Another, the Truth Will Emerge.
Censorship Ends in Logical Completeness When Nobody Is Allowed to Read Any Books Except the Books That Nobody Can Read.
The Things Most People Want to Know About Are Usually None of Their Business.
Silence Is the Most Perfect Expression of Scorn.
As Long as I Have a Want, I Have a Reason for Living. Satisfaction Is Death.
Beauty Is All Very Well at First Sight, but Who Ever Looks at It When It Has Been in the House Three Days?
Dancing Is a Perpendicular Expression of a Horizontal Desire.
Don’t Waste Time Collecting Other People’s Autographs; Rather Devote It to Making Your Own Autograph Worth Collecting.
The More Things a Man Is Ashamed Of, the More Respectable He Is.
If You Eliminate Smoking and Gambling, You Will Be Amazed to Find That Almost All an Englishman’s Pleasures Can Be, and Mostly Are, Shared by His Dog.
The Worst Sin Towards Our Fellow Creatures Is Not to Hate Them, but to Be Indifferent to Them: That’s the Essence of Inhumanity.
He Treats a Flower Girl as If She Was a Duchess, and a Duchess as If She Was a Flower Girl.
We Don’t Stop Playing Because We Grow Old; We Grow Old Because We Stop Playing.
When a Stupid Man Is Doing Something He Is Ashamed Of, He Always Declares That It Is His Duty.
If You Can’t Get Rid of the Skeleton in Your Closet, You’d Best Teach It to Dance.
The Power of Accurate Observation Is Frequently Called Cynicism by Those Who Don’t Have It.
A Perpetual Holiday Is a Good Working Definition of Hell.
There Are Scores of Human Insects Who Are Ready at a Moment’s Notice to Reveal the Will of God on Every Possible Subject.
You Have a Choice Between the Natural Stability of Gold and the Honesty and Intelligence of the Members of Government. and with All Due Respect for Those Gentlemen, I Advise You, as Long as the Capitalist System Lasts, Vote for Gold.
Sister, You’re Trying to Keep Me Alive as an Old Curiosity, but I’m Done, I’m Finished, I’m Going to Die.
There Is Only One True Happiness in Life, to Love and Be Loved.
When a Thing Is Funny, Search It Carefully for a Hidden Truth.
Life Isn’t About Finding Yourself; It’s About Creating Yourself.
Not the Least Regard Will Be Paid to American Ideas Except to Avoid Them as Much as Possible.
Gossipers Turn an Earful into a Mouthful.
Better See Rightly on a Pound a Week Than Squint on a Million.
Little-known facts about George Bernard Shaw — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
While vacationing at an English seaside resort, Shaw and his wife learned that Harpo Marx was nude-sunbathing on the beach. They went to see him, surprising him, and this began a long friendship.
Shaw was the first person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar for his adaptation of Pygmalion in 1938. Bob Dylan became the second in 2016.
His image appears on the cover of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band album.
After Shaw’s house became a museum, his Oscar statuette was so tarnished that the curator used it as a doorstop, not realizing its value.
Shaw was a longtime friend of Harpo Marx.
Fans of Trivial Pursuit joke that when uncertain, the answer is often George Bernard Shaw.
Shaw’s will left funds to develop a 40-letter English alphabet, which was created but never adopted.
Shaw refused to sell film rights to his plays, licensing them for five-year periods. He supervised screenplays for Pygmalion in 1938, Major Barbara in 1941, and Caesar and Cleopatra in 1945.
Shaw wrote under the pseudonyms GBS and Corno di Bassetto.
In 1914, Shaw wrote a pacifist pamphlet Common Sense About the War, arguing that a humiliated Germany burdened with war debt would lead to another conflict.
Shaw is the great-uncle of author and filmmaker Scott Shaw.
A biography of Shaw appears in Contemporary Authors volume 105.
Heartbreak House received a 2011 Equity Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Production of a Play at Chicago Writers Theatre.
Shaw was born at 12:30 a.m. local mean time.
Marlon Brando once noted that Shaw prioritized thinking while Brando himself valued feeling.
A 1971 production of Major Barbara at the Mark Taper Forum won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Distinguished Production.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about George Bernard Shaw.
Celebrities similar to George Bernard Shaw — same craft, ranked by reach.
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