William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was one of the greatest and famous writers in human history. He was born in Stratford-on-Avon, a small town in the middle of England. His father wanted his son to be a well-educated person and William was sent to the local grammar school.Studying at school the boy actually did not have any free time. But he spent his rare spare hours walking in the forest or watching the river Avon.Those days there were not a lot of theatres in towns and actors and actresses had to travel moving from one place to another with their shows. Sometimes they visited Stratford-on-Avon. William liked to watch them playing. He got fond of their profession and he decided to become an actor.He went to London and there he became an actor. At that time he began to write plays too. Shakespeare was at the same time an actor and a playwright. In his works he reflected events of his contemporaries' life. His plays were staged in many theatres, translated into many foreign languages. That made Shakespeare a very popular man.Most famous of his plays are Othello, King Lear, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet. They are still popular and you can watch his .plays in almost any country of the world. He produced thirty seven plays at all. He had connections with the best English theatres for about 25 years.William Shakespeare wrote also a lot of poetry including his unbeaten sonnets. There are numerous songs written with his poems. He is still most often published author of the world and well known among people. We do not know much about his life. We can only guess what kind of man he was analyzing the legends and a few documents of the time.Shakespeare died in 1616, but millions people today still admire his plays.