Paul Scofield
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Paul Scofield | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | David Paul Scofield 21 January 1922 Sussex, England |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 19 March 2008 (aged 86) |
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Occupation | Actor | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1940-1996 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Joy Parker (1943-2008) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE (21 January 1922 – 19 March 2008) was an English award-winning actor of stage and screen. Noted for his distinctive voice and delivery, Scofield received an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for his performance as Sir Thomas More in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons, a reprise of the role he played in the stage version at the West End and on Broadway for which he received a Tony Award.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Scofield was born in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex,[1] and began attending the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton at the age of 12[2] where he took various roles in school plays.[3]
He went up to Oxford in 1939, where he famously shared digs with Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin[4] before leaving university to pursue his acting career. Scofield began his stage career in 1940 with a debut performance in Desire Under the Elms at the Westminster Theatre, and was soon being compared with Laurence Olivier. In 1947, he starred in Walter Nugent Monck's revival of Pericles, Prince of Tyre at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford.[1]
[edit] Career
An actor of extraordinary intelligence, Scofield was noteworthy for his striking presence and distinctive voice, and for the clarity and unmannered intensity of his delivery. His versatility at the height of his career is exemplified by his starring roles in theatrical productions as diverse as the musical Expresso Bongo (1958) and Peter Brook's celebrated production of King Lear (1962). In a career mainly devoted to the classical theatre, he starred in many Shakespeare plays and played the title role in Ben Jonson's Volpone in Peter Hall's production for the Royal National Theatre (1977). Highlights of his career in modern theatre include the roles of Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons (1960), Charles Dyer in Dyer's play Staircase, staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966, the definitive Laurie in John Osborne's A Hotel in Amsterdam (1968), and Antonio Salieri in the original stage production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1979). He was subsequently the voice of the Dragon in another play by Robert Bolt, a children's drama The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew. Expresso Bongo, Staircase and Amadeus were filmed with other actors, but Scofield starred in the screen versions of A Man for All Seasons (1966) and King Lear (1971). Other major screen roles include Strether in a 1977 TV adaptation of Henry James's novel The Ambassadors, Tobias in A Delicate Balance (1973), Professor Moroi in the film of János Nyíri's If Winter Comes (1980), for BBC Television, Mark Van Doren in Robert Redford's film Quiz Show (1994), and Thomas Danforth in Nicholas Hytner's film adaptation (1996) of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
Scofield was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1956 New Year Honours.[5] He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for A Man for All Seasons and was nominated as Best Supporting Actor for Quiz Show. Theatrical accolades include a 1962 Tony Award for A Man for All Seasons. In 1969, Scofield became the sixth performer to win the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Male of the Species. He was also one of only eight actors to win both the Tony and the Oscar for the same role on stage and film. He was appointed a Companion of Honour (CH) in the 2001 New Year Honours.[6] In 2002 he was awarded the honorary degree of D. Litt by the University of Oxford.[7] In 2004 a poll of actors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, including Ian McKellen, Donald Sinden, Janet Suzman, Ian Richardson, Antony Sher and Corin Redgrave, acclaimed his Lear as the greatest Shakespearean performance ever.[8] Scofield appeared in many radio dramas for BBC Radio 4, including in later years plays by Peter Tinniswood: On the Train to Chemnitz (2001) and Anton in Eastbourne (2002). The latter was Tinniswood's last work and was written especially for Scofield, an admirer of Anton Chekhov. He was awarded the 2002 Sam Wanamaker Prize.
[edit] Personal life
Scofield married actress Joy Parker in 1943.[1] The couple had two children; Martin (born 1944), a lecturer in 19th-century English literature at the University of Kent,[2] and Sarah (born 1951).
He declined the honour of a knighthood on three occasions,[2][9] but was appointed CBE in 1956 and became a Companion of Honour in 2001.
Scofield died on 19 March 2008 at the age of 86 at a hospital near his home in Sussex, England, from leukemia.[10]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | That Lady | King Philip II of Spain | |
| 1958 | Carve Her Name with Pride | Tony Fraser | |
| 1964 | The Train | Col. von Waldheim | |
| 1966 | A Man for All Seasons | Sir Thomas More | Academy Award for Best Actor BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role |
| 1970 | Bartleby | The Accountant | |
| 1971 | King Lear | King Lear | |
| 1973 | A Delicate Balance | Tobias | |
| Scorpio | Zharkov | ||
| 1983 | Ill Fares the Land | voice | |
| 1984 | Summer Lightning | Old Robert Clarke | |
| 1985 | Anna Karenina | Karenin | TV role |
| 1919 | Alexander Scherbatov | ||
| 1989 | Henry V | Charles VI of France | |
| 1990 | Hamlet | The Ghost | |
| 1992 | Utz | Doctor Vaclav Orlik | |
| 1994 | Quiz Show | Mark Van Doren | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination |
| 1996 | The Crucible | Judge Thomas Danforth | BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role |
| 1997 | Robinson in Space | Narrator | |
| 1999 | Animal Farm | Boxer | voice |
[edit] Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Male of the Species | Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role | |
| 1980 | If Winter Comes | Professor Moroi | |
| 1981 | The Potting Shed | James Callifer | |
| 1985 | Anna Karenina | Karenin | |
| 1987 | Mister Corbett's Ghost | Mr. Corbett | |
| 1988 | The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank | Otto Frank | |
| 1989 | When the Whales Came | The Birdman | |
| 1994 | Genesis: The Creation and the Flood | ||
| Martin Chuzzlewit | Old Martin Chuzzlewit/Anthony Chuzzlewit | BAFTA TV Award Best Actor nomination | |
| 1999 | The Disabled Century |
[edit] Discography
Paul Scofield led the cast in the Shakespeare Recording Society versions of King Lear, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and in other dramas issued by Caedmon Records:
- King Lear, directed by Howard Sackler (Text edited by G.B. Harrison), with Pamela Brown (Goneril), Rachel Roberts (Regan), Ann Bell (Cordelia); Wallace Eaton (France), John Rogers (Burgundy), Trevor Martin (Cornwall), Michael Aldridge (Albany), Andrew Keir (Kent), Cyril Cusack (Gloucester), Robert Stephens (Edgar), John Stride (Edmund), Ronnie Stevens (Fool); Arthur Hewlett (Curan, Doctor), Ronald Ibbs (Gentleman, Knight), Willoughby Goddard (Oswald). Eight sides, SRS 233 (first published 1965).
- Hamlet, directed by Howard Sackler, (Unabridged), with Diana Wynyard (Queen), Roland Culver (Claudius), Donald Houston (Laertes), Zena Walker (Ophelia), Wilfrid Lawson. Eight sides, SRS 232 (first published 1963).
- A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by Howard Sackler, with Barbara Jefford, Joy Walker, John Stride, etc. Six sides, SRS 208 (first published 1964).
- T.S. Eliot, The Family Reunion, with Flora Robson, Sybil Thorndike, Alan Webb. Six sides, TRS 308.
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, with Ralph Richardson. (Caedmon)
Also:
- King Lear, with Harriet Walter (Goneril), Sara Kestelman (Regan), Emilia Fox (Cordelia), Alec McCowen (Gloucester), Kenneth Branagh (Fool), David Burke, Richard A. McCabe, Toby Stephens, etc. Released 2002 to concide with Scofield's 80th birthday. (Naxos Audiobooks, 3CD set).
- Virgil, The Aeneid, Paul Scofield (narrator), Jill Balcon and Toby Stephens (readers). (Naxos Audiobook CD).
- T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land and Four Quartets (BBC Radiobooks CD).
- Sandor Marai, Embers (Penguin Audiobooks) - Narrator
- With David Suchet and Ron Moody, Scofield led the cast of a radio dramatization of the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, which are available as CD issues. (Tynedale Entertainment)
- Scofield recorded abridged readings of Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Bleak House (Blackstone Audiobooks).
- Façade (Sitwell-Walton), performed by Paul Scofield and Peggy Ashcroft, with London Sinfonietta conducted by William Walton. (Argo Records, 1972)
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Film Reference biography. Access date: 16 November 2007.
- ^ a b c O'Connor, Garry. Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons. Applause Theatre Book Publishers. February 2002. ISBN 1-55738-499-7.
- ^ Paul Scofield biography. Access date: 16 November 2007.
- ^ Leader, Zachary The Life of Kingsley Amis Pantheon Books 2007
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 40669, page 12, 30 December 1955. Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
- ^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 56070, page 4, 30 December 2000. Retrieved on 2008-03-19.
- ^ Oxford University Gazette Encaenia 2002 (PDF). Retrieved on 2008-03-25.
- ^ Scofield's Lear voted the greatest Shakespeare performance. Telegraph.co.uk. 22 August 2004.
- ^ Paul Scofield biography. Barnes & Noble. Access date: 16 November 2007.
- ^ "Oscar-winning actor Scofield dies", BBC News Online, 2008-03-20. Retrieved on 2008-03-20.
[edit] External links
- Paul Scofield at the Internet Movie Database
- Paul Scofield Websites at Filmbug
- BBC News Interview-Paul Scofield, A Man For All Seasons
- Obituaries:
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Richard Burton for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? |
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role 1967 for A Man for All Seasons |
Succeeded by Spencer Tracy for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner |
| Preceded by Oskar Werner for Ship of Fools |
NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1966 for A Man for All Seasons |
Succeeded by Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night |
| Preceded by Tim Roth for Rob Roy |
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role 1997 for The Crucible |
Succeeded by Tom Wilkinson for The Full Monty |
|
||||||||
|
|||||
|
||||||||
