Paul Scofield Biography, Bio, Profile, pictures, photos from Netglimse.com

Born in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex,Paul Scofield started attending the Varndean School for Boys in Brighton . There he actively participated in various school plays.He played various roles. In the year 1939, after going to Oxford he shared digs with Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin. He continued taking interests in plays even after leaving Oxford. Paul began his career in stage acting in the year 1940 where he makes his debut in 'Desire Under the Elms' at the Westminster Theatre. Interestingly people begun comparing Paul with Laurence Olivier. In the year 1947,at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford,he showed his acting skills in Walter Nugent Monck's revival of Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Career

Apart from brilliant acting ability, Paul has been gifted with striking personality and spectacular voice . While performing Paul also has devloped spontaneity in deliverance. These features rightly testifies his aura and intelligence as an actor.

He is versatile who has extended his hands in theatrical productions and that too is quite diversified. Expresso Bongo , a musical bonanza that was released in the year 1958 and Peter Brook's much-acclaimed production called King Lear .It was released in the year 1962. He also devoted his time in the classical theatre also. He starred in various Shakespearean plays. Paul's title role in Ben Jonson's Volpone under the production of Peter Hall at Royal National Theatre (1977)still in enlivened in the memories of the audiences. In the arena of modern theatre also his presence is ubiquitous. Some of his memorable roles are Charles Dyer in Dyer's play Staircase, staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966; Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons (1960);the classic Laurie in John Osborne's A Hotel in Amsterdam (1968), and Antonio Salieri in the original stage production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1979). Not only that , he lend his voice of that of a Dragon in Robert Bolt's , children's drama namely 'The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew.'
,br> So far as films are concerned , apart from films like Expresso Bongo, Staircase and Amadeus ,Scofield acted as casts in the screen versions of A Man for All Seasons (1966) and King Lear (1971). Strether in a 1977 TV adaptation of Henry James's novel The Ambassadors, Professor Moroi in the film of János Nyíri's If Winter Comes (1980), for BBC Television, Mark Van Doren in Robert Redford's film Quiz Show (1994), and Thomas Danforth in Nicholas Hytner's film adaptation (1996) of Arthur Miller's The Crucible are some of the important on- screen roles.

Scofield's appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1956 New Year Honours has added more glory to his life.He received several awards . For instance he got the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film 'A Man for All Seasons' and was also got the nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for Quiz Show. Theatrical honors include Tony Award for A Man for All Seasons (1962) . In the year 1969, Scofield became the 6th performer to have grasp the Triple Crown of Acting, winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a leading role for Male of the Species. He was also one of 8 actors to win both the Tony and the Oscar for the same role on stage and film. In the year 2004 ,eminent actors of the Royal Shakespeare Company, including Ian McKellen, Donald Sinden, Janet Suzman, Ian Richardson, Anthony Sher and Corin Redgrave,has voted him and also acknowledged his acting as Lear to be the all time greatest Shakespearean performance ever done by any one. Paul Scofield also took part in a number of dramas that were organized for BBC Radio 4. Some of them include plays of later years by Peter Tinniswood like On the Train to Chemnitz (2001) and Anton in Eastbourne (2002). Anton in Eastbourne was the last work of Tinniswood who has written it keeping in mind Scofield, an Anton Chekhov's fan.

So far as personal life is concerned , Scofield got married with Joy Parker , the actress in 1943. The couple had two children namely Martin who was born in the year 1944. Prsently he is a lecturer in nineteenth century English literature at the University of Kent. Their daughter Sarah was born in the year 1951.It is said that Paul even turned down the offer of knighthood for three times but was appointed CBE in the year 1956 and became a Companion of Honour in the year 2001.

The glorious life of Scofield came to an end on March 19, 2008 at the age of eighty six at a hospital near his home in Sussex, England . He has been suffering from the terminal disease of leukemia.