FACTBOX-Key facts about Nobel laureate Harold Pinter

(Reuters) - Following are key facts about Harold Pinter, the British playwright, director and Nobel literature laureate who died of cancer on Christmas Eve aged 78.

* Born Oct 10, 1930, in East London, son of a Jewish dressmaker. Evacuated from London during World War Two, Pinter said the experience of wartime bombing never lost its hold on him.

* A noted director, playwright and screenwriter, he received honorary degrees from numerous universities. As an actor in 1954-1957 he used the stage name David Baron.

* Some of his best known plays are "The Birthday Party," "The Caretaker," "The Homecoming," "Betrayal" and "Ashes to Ashes." The Nobel Academy's 2005 citation said: "In a typical Pinter play, we meet people defending themselves against intrusion or their own impulses by entrenching themselves in a reduced and controlled existence."

* He spoke out forcefully against what he saw as the abuse of state power around the world and was a fierce critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq by Britain and the United States.

* Earlier awards won by Pinter include the Shakespeare Prize, the European Prize for literature, the Pirandello Prize, the David Cohen British Literature Prize, the Laurence Olivier Award and the Moliere D'Honneur for lifetime achievement.

(Source: Harold Pinter website www.haroldpinter.org )