Samuel Beckett, in full Samuel Barclay Beckett was born April 13, 1906, Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland, and died December 22, 1989, Paris, France He was an author, critic, and playwright, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. He wrote in both French and English and is perhaps best known for his plays, especially En attendant Godot (1952; Waiting for Godot).