Leading British playwright Sir Arnold Wesker, who came to prominence in the late 1950s with his gritty, working class dramas, has died aged 83.

• He first established his reputation with the Wesker Trilogy at the Royal Court theatre in central London.
• He wrote more than 40 plays, as well as short stories, essays and poetry over five decades.
• One of his most successful plays, Chips with Everything, was inspired by his own experiences in the RAF.
• Sir Arnold, who had his plays performed all over the world, was born in the East End of London in 1932 to Jewish communist parents.
• He was a leading figure in a generation of writers in the 1950s who became known as “angry young men” – a group that included novelists Kingsley Amis, John Braine and Alan Sillitoe.
• Sir Arnold was keen to spread culture to the layman and set up a theatre venue called Centre 42 at the Roundhouse in London in the early 1960s.
• In 1961 he was jailed for demonstrating against nuclear weapons.

Born on May 24, 1932, Mr. Wesker grew up in East London and never attended college. As he built his writing career he took a variety of jobs, including bookseller’s assistant, farm laborer, kitchen porter and pastry chef, which inspired his first play, “The Kitchen” (1957). He served in the Royal Air Force from 1950 to 1952.