By Jim Cheng, USA TODAY Paul Scofield may have turned down a knighthood, but his place among British acting royalty is nonetheless assured.
The legendary stage actor, who won an Academy Award for A Man for All Seasons, made only a handful of films, but he made them count.
Scofield died Wednesday at time of life 86 in a hospital in southern England. He had been suffering from leukemia.
On stage, Scofield brought his physical gifts — a craggy face and a powerful, rumbling voice — to roles from Shakespeare and Shaw to Steinbeck and Chekhov.
Richard Burton, once regarded as the theatrical heir to Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud, said it was Scofield who deserved that place. “Of the 10 greatest moments in the theater, eight are Scofield’s.”
Even A Man as being All Seasons, perhaps his greatest film role, was an adaptation of a play that won him a Tony Award in 1962. He reprised his role as Sir Thomas More, who was executed after clashing through King Henry VIII, in the 1966 film.
“With a kind of weary magnificence, Scofield sinks himself into the part, studiously underplays it, and somehow displays the inner mind of a man destined for sainthood,” Time magazine said.
In 1979, he received acclaim for another great historical stage role, as composer Antonio Salieri in Amadeus.
For all the fame, Scofield remained a family man who lived most of his life a few miles from his birthplace.
“It is hard not to be Polyanna-ish about Paul because he is like a manifestly good man, so rational and decent, and curiously void of ego,” said director Richard Eyre, former artistic director of Britain’s National Theatre. “All the pride he has is channeled through the thing that he does brilliantly.”
Scofield reportedly had been offered a knighthood, but declined.
“It is just not an aspect of life that I would require,” he once said. “If you want a title, what’s wrong with Mr.?”
Still, in 2001 he was named a Companion of Honor, one of England’s top accolades, limited to 65 living people.
Scofield received his second Oscar nomination for Robert Redford’s Quiz Show (1994). His other films included Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (1973), Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V (1989) and The Crucible (1996).
He told The Sunday Times in 1992, “Yes, I’ve turned down quite a lot of parts. At my age you exigency to weed things out, but the idea that I can’t be obliged being bothered anymore with acting — that’s quite preposterous. Acting is all I can do. An actor: That’s what I am.”
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