Paul Scofield

“No ceremony, Thomas, no ceremony.” This phrase was used by Robert Shaw , as King Henry VIII, to Paul Scofield, in A Man for Eternity, when as Moro was going to welcome him into the family home. And indeed, Scofield conveyed a distinguished and stately demeanor, but there was something else, familiar and homely, that made him especially endearing and attractive to the viewer. As if he knew the secret to a fulfilling life. And certainly, he did not do badly in his earthly days, in which he fled whenever he could from the spotlight, granting few interviews, always jealous of his private life. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to wave your personality like flags and get tagged,” he commented. Not wanting empty tinsel, as Les Luthiers would say, he even refused the title of sir when it was offered to him in the 1960s.

Paul Scofield was born in English West Sussex, in Hurstpierspoint, on January 21, 1922. The son of a teacher, he attended school in Brighton, and the bug of acting, which would make him a giant of the scene and the screen of Cinema came to him at an early age, as he passed through the Croydon Repertory Theater School and the London Mask Theater School at the age of 17 and 18. The outbreak of World War II led him to join traveling theater companies that put on plays for soldiers. In 1943 he married Joy Parker, also an actress, with whom he would have two children. He then began his familiarity with Shakespeare. And in 1946 his great successes would arrive with the main roles of “Henry V”, “Love’s Labour’s Lost” or “Hamlet”.Peter Brook at the Birmingham Repertory Theater, and from 1962 with the newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company. In the cinema he would revisit Shakespeare with Kenneth Branagh in 1989 ( Henry V ) and with Mel Gibson in Hamlet , although yes, in small roles. John Gielgud described him as “a secret sphinx”, due to the depth of his interpretations.

He made his film debut in 1955 in The Princess of Éboli , where he played Felipe II. And with John Frankenheimer , in 1964, he played his first major role, in The Train , opposite Burt Lancaster . Before shining on the screen, he brilliantly staged Robert Bolt ‘s recently released 1960 play A Man Forever . The drama of a man of firm Christian convictions, who, before compromising with his king, to whom he is deeply loyal as a subject, follows the voice of his conscience and did not accept Henry VIII’s divorce, was moving. Indeed, this work and then in 1966 the film directed by Fred ZinnemannThey served to further spread the wonderful story of St. Thomas More. The film won 6 Oscars, including the one for best film, and the one for best actor for a formidable, very humane, Paul Scofield. He had previously won the Tony for this role in theater.

From his filmography we must also highlight his roles in A Delicate Balance with Katharine Hepburn , When the Whales Return , along with Helen Mirren , as well as his role as the father of a cheater in a television game show on Quiz Show (The Dilemma) , by Robert Redford . , which earned him an Oscar nomination, and that of a judge in the witch hunt for The Crucible , based on the work of Arthur Miller , where he worked alongside Daniel Day-Lewis .