Paul Scofield

Though his number of film roles amount to a bit over 30, Paul Scofield has cast a giant shadow in the world of stage and film acting. He grew up in West Sussex, the son of a schoolmaster. He attended the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton. The love of acting came early. While still high school age, he began training as an actor at the Croydon Repertory Theatre School (1939) and then at the Mask Theatre School (1940) in London. He took on all the experience he could handle by joining touring companies and also entertained British troops during World War II.

Has two children, Martin (born in 1944), a lecturer in 19th century English literature at the University of Kent, and Sarah (born in 1951).

He joined the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and, from there in 1946, he moved to Stratford-upon-Avon. There, in the birthplace of William Shakespeare, he had his first great successes. He had the title role in "Henry V"; he was "Cloten" in "Cymbeline"; "Don Adriano de Armado" in "Love's Labour's Lost", "Lucio" in "Measure for Measure", and then "Hamlet". And there were many more as he honed himself into one the great Shakespearean actors of the 20th century. With a rich, sonorous voice compared to a Rolls Royce being started up, in one instance, and a great sound rumbling forth from an antique crypt in yet another, he was quickly compared to Laurence Olivier.

Scofield did not move on to commercial theater until 1949, when he took the lead role of "Alexander the Great", in playwright Terence Rattigan's unfortunately ill-received "Adventure Story". And as he continued theater work, he moved toward film very carefully.

Was considered for the role of Marc Antony in Julius Caesar (1953). The part went to Marlon Brando.

From his first in 1955, Scofield was always - as with any of his acting assignments - extremely picky about accepting a particular role. It was three years before his second film. Meanwhile, Scofield had the opportunity to play a great lead part in a new play by a schoolmaster-turned-new-playwright, Robert Bolt. The play was "A Man for All Seasons" and Scofield's choice role was that of "Sir Thomas More", the great English humanist and chancellor, who defied the ogre "King Henry VIII" in his wish to put aside his first wife for "Anne Bolyne".

He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1956 Queen's New Year Honours List for his services to drama.

His third film came six years after his second screen appearance (1958).

It was a once in a lifetime part, and Scofield debuted it in London in 1960.

His only appearance on Broadway was the next year in that play, which ran into 1962. It was no surprise that the work began garnering awards for him (see Trivia below for details on theater and film awards).

He returned to Shakespeare in 1962 with Peter Brook, the noted British director and producer, directing him as "Lear" at the newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford. This was a pioneering minimalist production, one of the first "bare stage" efforts - though things were pretty bare stage in Shakespeare's day.

Scofield's 1962 "Lear" was held in high esteem, and Brook decided on a film version, King Lear (1970), an even more uncompromising, even uncomfortable, desolation staging and editing of the tragedy. Despite some oddball camera work and not wholly satisfying adapting of the play, Scofield was magnificent and got his chance to show that he is perhaps the best Lear of modern times. While still keeping a concerted interest in filmed play adaptations, Scofield could be lured into more typical screen drama.

Scofield then did "Coriolanus" and "Love's Labour's Lost" for the Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario in 1963.

This was his standout performance in The Train (1964), a production of his co-star, Burt Lancaster, that grew in size and budget with the entrance of Lancaster's second choice for director, John Frankenheimer. Some of the difficulties involved might have turned someone of Scofield's discipline back to the stage thereafter, but the filming of "Seasons" arrived, and he would hardly refuse.

When Richard Burton and John le Carré bonded on the set of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Burton (by now predominantly a movie actor) would frequently regret that he hadn't "done a Paul Scofield," by which le Carré understood "eschew the big-screen heroics and the big-screen money and accept only acting parts of real artistic substance". The two actors were simultaneously nominated for Best Actor Oscars (for A Man for All Seasons (1966) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)): Burton's private diary records disappointment that he had lost, "But P. Scofield won so that's alright".

With Robert Bolt handling the screenplay and a superlative supporting cast, the film version of A Man for All Seasons (1966) collected some thirty-three international awards, including a three-statue sweep of prime-Oscar categories plus another three for good measure. Scofield was unforgettable as the incisive man of state, able to juggle the volatile politics of the time but always keep his honor and so brimming with faith as to endure the inevitably mounting tide against him. It suited Scofield for a time to keep his screen-acting to adaptations of plays, books, and ensemble pieces fitted to the big screen.

Peter Brook and he teamed again for a film version of the Brook-adapted play Tell Me Lies (1968).

In 1969, he became the sixth performer to win the Triple Crown of Acting. Oscar: Best Actor, A Man for All Seasons (1966), Tony: Best Actor-Play, 'A Man for All Seasons' (1962), and Emmy: Best Actor, Male of the Species (1969).

The adaptation of Herman Melville's Bartleby (1970), despite Scofield's efforts, did not wash as an attempt to update Melville's story in the late twentieth century. Then Brook was back again to finally attempt what he said had really never been done correctly -adapting Shakespeare to film.

He joined former co-star, Burt Lancaster, for the spy thriller, Scorpio (1973), as a memorable Russian comrade of Lancaster from the days of World War II, caught in late-Cold War spy craft brutality.

Was considered for the role of Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974).

Through the 1980s, Scofield did a mix of TV and film on both sides of the Atlantic.

He had been cast as O'Brien in 1984 (1984) but had to widthdraw from the film after breaking a leg. Richard Burton was re-cast in the role.

The August 28, 1985, issue of Variety, in the Production Pulse section announced that the film "The Conspiracy" began filming August 26, 1985, in Yugoslavia. Director was Michael Anderson with stars Christopher Walken, Robert Mitchum, Paul Scofield, Alice Krige, and others. No evidence the film was ever completed or released.

But he was drawn back to Shakespeare and filming efforts, though in humbler parts, first in the Henry V (1989) of ambitious Kenneth Branagh, as the French king, and, the next year, in the Franco Zeffirelli, Hamlet (1990), as "The Ghost" - with the real buzz being for Mel Gibson as the dour "Prince of Denmark". Both films were well-crafted with impressive supporting casts. And Scofield could be content that as with all his roles, he was remaining consistent with himself as his own best judge of how to challenge his acting gifts. Gibson was appropriately awed, saying that working with Scofield was like being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson" (that is, Mike Tyson then, not now).

Through the 1990s, he enjoyed his continued sampling of all acting media, even radio narration and animation voice-over. The matter of British actors weighing upon the acceptance of knighthoods for their work began most publicly with Scofield.

In 1991 he was scheduled to play the role of Dr Monygham in David Lean's adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. Lean's death in April 1991 brought the project to an end.

He was awarded the 1996 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in John Gabriel Borkman.

He was nominated for 1997 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor in a Play of 1996 for his performance in John Gabriel Borkman.

He was awarded the Companion of Honour in the Queen's 2001 New Year's Honours List for his services to drama.

In a rare 2004 opinion poll of members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Paul was acclaimed for giving the greatest performance in a Shakespearean play for his legendary portrayal of King Lear in a 1962 production at Stratford. Voting peers included such theatre luminaries as Ian McKellen , Donald Sinden , Janet Suzman , Ian Richardson , Corin Redgrave and Antony Sher . Judi Dench 's Lady Macbeth in Trevor Nunn 's 1976 production of "Macbeth" came in second.

A memorial service was held for him at Westminster Abbey, London on 19 March 2009.