credits , like his plays , span the decades and include `` The Quiller Memorandum '' -LRB- 1965 -RRB- and `` The French Lieutenant 's Woman '' -LRB- 1981 -RRB- . Pinter also wrote the screenplay for his 1978 play `` Betrayal , '' the story of a doomed love affair told backward , which was made into a 1983 film with Ben Kingsley , Jeremy Irons and Patricia Hodge . He received the Nobel Prize in literature in 2005 . Pinter 's later plays were more overtly political , with works such as `` One for the Road '' -LRB- 1984 -RRB- and `` The New World Order '' -LRB- 1991 -RRB- focusing on state torture . In commentaries , he became a blistering critic of the United States , writing in his Nobel lecture that the country `` quite simply does n't give a damn about the United Nations , international law or critical dissent , which it regards as impotent and irrelevant . It also has its own bleating little lamb tagging behind it on a lead , the pathetic and supine Great Britain . '' But Pinter could also be a man of great humor .
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Harold Pinter , the Nobel Prize-winning playwright and screenwriter whose absurdist and realistic works displayed a despair and defiance about the human condition , has died , according to British media reports . He was 78 . The much-honored Harold Pinter received the French Legion d'honneur in 2007 . Pinter 's wife , Lady Antonia Fraser , confirmed his death . Pinter , who had been suffering from cancer , died on Christmas Eve , according to the reports . Fraser told the Guardian newspaper : `` He was a great , and it was a privilege to live with him for over 33 years . He will never be forgotten . '' Pinter was known for such plays as `` The Birthday Party '' -LRB- 1957 -RRB- , `` The Homecoming '' -LRB- 1964 -RRB- , `` No Man 's Land '' -LRB- 1974 -RRB- , `` Mountain Language '' -LRB- 1988 -RRB- , and `` Celebration '' -LRB- 2000 -RRB- . The works caught a linguistic rhythm -- the legendary `` Pinter pause '' -- and an air of social unease that resonated throughout the English-speaking world and in myriad translations . His movie