Born Tomas Straussler in Zlin, Czechoslovakia, in 1937, the playwright fled to Singapore with his Jewish family on March 15, 1939, the day of the Nazi invasion. The Strausslers were then sent to Australia and eventually evacuated to Darjeeling in India, leaving behind his father, a doctor and British Army volunteer, to help in Singapore’s defence against the Japanese occupation. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that Stoppard learned that all four of his grandparents left behind in Czechoslovakia had perished in concentration camps. Stoppard’s 1982 play The Real Thing features the line: “I was taken once to Covent Garden to hear a woman called Callas” …

In the 1920s, Ari, as he was known to most people, launched his own cigarette brand, which made him a millionaire by the time he was 25. He soon realised the shipping business was far more profitable, however, and after purchasing six cargo ships during the Great Depression his wealth grew immensely as he leased them out to the Allied forces during the second world war. In the 1988 movie Onassis: The Richest Man in the World, the Greek entrepreneur was immortalised by Puerto Rican actor Raul Julia …