Portraits of Irish playwright Samuel Bec

Dublin, IRELAND: Portraits of Irish playwright Samuel Beckett appear in a photo-document exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth at the National Photographic Archive, Templebar, Dublin, 07 April 2006. Beckett was among the first of the playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd to win fame, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. His search for the perfect expression, his pre-occupation with meaning, alienation, and silence led him over the decades to strip away the usual conventions of the novel and stage. Beckett continued to write until his death in France on December 26, 1989, but in the end he said: "Every word is like an unnecessary stain on silence and nothingness." (Photo credit should read FRAN CAFFREY/AFP via Getty Images)