Scripts these days owe a quilled pen or two to playwright William Shakespeare, creator of such classics as “Hamlet,” “MacBeth” and “The Tempest.” A-list actors from Patrick Stewart to James Earl Jones probably wouldn’t garner as much respect without Shakespearean backgrounds. The man dubbed The Bard revolutionized English by introducing clever turns of phrase still commonly used today, from “wild goose chase” (“Romeo and Juliet”) to “it’s Greek to me” (“Julius Caesar”). “Our language is built by Shakespeare,” said Dominic Dromgoole, a creative director of Shakespearean troupe Globe To Globe, said to CBS News in 2016, 400 years after the writer’s death. “Thousands of words he made up, thousands of phrases, thousands of ways of thinking, which is what language and phrases are.”
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While Shakespeare’s legacy is still prominent, influencing popular movies like “The Lion King,” “West Side Story,” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” little is known about the man himself. He was one of eight children born to leather salesman John Shakespeare and land heiress Mary Arden. He married Anne Hathaway, and had three children. But pundits aren’t sure about his education that led to his literary and theatrical direction. Besides his work, what stands out was his famed facility, The Globe Theatre, which showcased much of his work, and that Queen Elizabeth I was a loyal fan. Although some scholars still harbor doubts about the date, William Shakespeare died of causes unknown in Stratford, England April 23, 1616. He had just turned 52.
