Oscar-winning actor Paul Scofield dies

Published Thursday 20 March 2008 at 12:05 by Michael Quinn

Actor Paul Scofield has died at the age of 86, after a long battle with leukaemia.

Born in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, Scofield began acting at school and made his professional debut in 1940. He went on to play most of the great Shakespearean roles during several seasons with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre and was widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation.

In 2004, a poll of RSC actors including Ian McKellen and Antony Sher voted Scofield’s portrayal of King Lear for the company in 1962 to be the greatest ever performance in a Shakespeare play. He put the role on film in 1971.

His film appearances were no less lauded. In 1966 he won several awards, including an Oscar, for his role as Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt’s A Man For All Seasons - a role he had earlier played on stage. He received a second Academy Award nomination in 1994 for his supporting role in the Robert Redford-directed Quiz Show and won his second Bafta two years later as Judge Thomas Danforth in Nicholas Hytner’s screen adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

As a stage actor, Scofield was revered for his intelligence and a voice not easily forgotten once heard in full flow. “Of the ten greatest moments in theatre,” Richard Burton once remarked, “eight are Scofield’s.”

He was awarded a CBE in 1956 and made a Companion of Honour in 2001 but refused a knighthood three times. He leaves behind a widow, the actor Joy Parker, whom he married in 1943, and two children.

A full obituary will appear in a future print edition of The Stage.