Academy Award-winning actor Paul Scofield dies.

[CBHagman]

I had thought terrya would have gotten to this before I did, but here goes:

There was another sad loss in the film and theater world today. Paul Scofield, the distinguished British actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor as Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons, has died. Over the course of his long career Scofield didn't make an especially large number of films -- he was chiefly a man of the theater -- but what he accomplished on screen was memorable.

Judging by his profile in the Guardian newspaper, he was also a very level-headed sort!

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2266795,00.html

Scofield was appointed a CBE in 1956 after an appearance in Peter Brook's Hamlet, in Moscow.

But he more than once rejected a knighthood, saying he wanted to remain "plain Mister".

"If you want a title, what's wrong with Mr? If you have always been that, then why lose your title? But it's not political. I have a CBE, which I accepted very gratefully."

Although scrupulously polite, he was also known for shunning the press and he disliked parties and film premieres. A private man, he enjoyed walking in the area around his home in Balcombe, West Sussex, and at his holiday home in Scotland.

Picture gallery:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/gallery/2008/mar/20/1?picture=333197091



Film and TV credits:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006890/

[terrya]

1. Oh my....

Paul Scofield was such a fine actor. This is sad news.

I was delighted to see him (fairly recently) in a film I liked very much, "Quiz Show". He was wonderful in it.

[CBHagman]

2. The first Oscar broadcast I can remember...

...was the one where Scofield won Best Actor for his performance in A Man for All Seasons. I was a kid and hadn't seen the movie, but being a Catholic, I'd heard about both John Fisher and Thomas More.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

3. Oh no :( I loved his work

As Thomas More, and as the French King in Kenneth Branagh's Henry V, and as The Ghost in Mel Gibson's Hamlet. An extraordinary talent.

May his soul know Peace.

:cry: