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I just read on Yahoo News that Paul Scofield has died of leukemia. My parents saw him on Broadway in ' A Man For All Seasons' and my Dad always remembered how Scofield's Sir Thomas More brought tears to his eyes. We are so fortunate to have at least some of his genius captured on film. Not only 'A Man For All Seasons' but also 'The Crucible' in which he was especially good. He will be sorely missed and may he rest in peace.

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Thank you for posting this unhappy news, MakarovaFan. Another great one has left us. As this obituary points out, Scofield did not have much of a film career – the camera did not take to him – but he can be seen in the film of Peter Brook’s production of ‘King Lear’ a movie I don’t much like but should be seen, a film adaptation of Melville’s ‘Bartleby the Scrivener.’ He would also pop up in supporting roles now and then, playing Mark Van Doren in ‘Quiz Show.’

His performance on stage in ‘The Power and the Glory’ was legendary. I have mixed feelings about ‘A Man for All Seasons’ and his performance in it, but there is no doubt they are both exceptional. He turned down a knighthood.

Although Mr. Scofield’s Thomas More is indelibly remembered, most critics rated others of his performances even more highly. When he played Khlestakov in Gogol’s “Government Inspector” in 1966 as “a fantasticated poseur as stupid as his victims,” Peter Hall said it was one of the half-dozen best he had ever seen. Collectors of great acting cited his Lear, his brooding Uncle Vanya in 1970, his titanically angry Timon of Athens in 1965, his magnificently warm, doting Othello in 1980, his darkly embittered Salieri in 1981 and his Voight, the ex-jailbird who poses as a military man in Zuckmayer’s “Captain of Koepenick.”
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Two of his movies which the obituary dd not mention, probably because they weren't considered creditable enough for such an artist, were Scorpio (which was truly bad) and The Train, a film I much admire. Both were with Burt Lancaster, an actor with whom Scofield worked very well. The tension between them in The Train gave the film much of its power, and their scenes together in Scorpio are the only reason to watch it. I saw Scofield on stage in both Man for All Seasons and King Lear, and he was an awesome presence and as great an actor as I have ever seen.

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Thank you, popularlibrary, and welcome to the forum ( I don't think you've posted on Other Arts before, excuse me if you have and I missed it.) I haven't seen either movie. You are so fortunate to have seen Scofield onstage. I have recordings of his Hamlet and Lear.

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Nightingale also opined for the other Times:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol...icle3592225.ece

There were two main reasons for his relative neglect, the first of which is a terrible comment on our honours system. He refused a knighthood, later telling me: “If you want a title what’s wrong with Mr?” Sadly, this meant that when people talked of our great actors, he tended to get forgotten or relegated below Derek Jacobi and Ben Kingsley.

I remember reading that on occasion Kingsley gets testy if people don't use the 'Sir.'

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