The paradigm-shifting Shakespearean, last seen on film on these shores in 1995's The Crucible, had been suffering from leukemia. He was 86.
Ron Rosenbaum on Scofield's Lear: "...[I]n the early sixties [Peter] Brooks with Paul Scofield playing the King (first on stage and then on screen) found some fusion of bleakness and dread that left audiences devastated and cathartically exhilarated and marked the moment when Lear displaced Hamlet in the minds of many as the more profound Shakespearean experience."
Here's Scofield in Brooks' 1971 film version, which has a visual austerity one might describe as Scandanavian...
Scofield's performance is so acute as to be deeply troubling. Alas, as of now the film is only available on VHS and foreign region DVD. More easily accessible, and recommended, are A Delicate Balance, Bartleby, and Quiz Show. And, of course, A Man For All Seasons.
He was truly a sui generis actor. Have you ever heard anyone say of another performer, "He reminds me of Paul Scofield?"
He was also brilliant in the underrated "The Crucible". He was fantastic as a man who was so sure that he was a wise and fair man to the point of almost being smug about it, and who also happened to be wrong about everything.
Posted by: bill | March 20, 2008 at 11:05 AM
I know Scofield was a legendary performer on the British stage and chose to appear in only a handful of movies. While I'm certain he had his reasons (famously reclusive, he turned down a knighthood), this was our misfortune. Scofield is outstanding in all of the films you mention (he certainly walks away with QUIZ SHOW). [TCM just aired KING LEAR the other week.] I've never seen THAT LADY, his mid-'50s film debut, but I would add that he was excellent as Burt Lancaster's Nazi antagonist in Frankenheimer's THE TRAIN. His final scene, in which Scofield's character sort of talks himself to death, was deftly played and even moving in its unexpectedness.
I still don't quite understand why he decided to appear in Michael Winner's dreadful SCORPIO, though.
Posted by: Griff | March 20, 2008 at 03:36 PM
I actually HAVE heard someone say that. And now I understand why!
Posted by: oakling | March 20, 2008 at 03:50 PM
It is true that Scofield turned away film offers, but if the camera had liked his extraordinary face a little better I suspect he would have made more. Onstage he was a matinee idol, but not onscreen.
( The late Richard Burton used to get exercised over this question, as he was regularly compared unfavorably to Scofield for having abandoned the stage for the filthy lucre of the movies. This criticism had some truth to it, but Burton was also correct to point out, privately, that it wasn’t his fault he photographed better than Scofield.)
It’s too bad, because what we have preserved on film probably doesn’t even hint at how really great he could be, and his best work is lost to us. (The film version of King Lear does not do justice to the stage version, I am given to understand. I certainly hope that’s the case, as I did not care for the picture.)
He also has a very smll role as the King of France in Branagh's Henry V, and his appearance is an object lesson in the impact an actor can make in very little time and with very few words; one look at Scofield's defeated visage and you know the French are done for.
Posted by: Caissa | March 20, 2008 at 06:45 PM
I'm willing to believe Scofield's great stage reputation, but the Brook KING LEAR is bleak phoniness chasing greatness and Scofield is all too willing to stonily oblige. The only great performance in that dreadful movie is Jack MacGowran's as the Fool. Maybe Scofield just defined the difference between a great stage actor and a great film one?
Posted by: addison dewitt | March 20, 2008 at 08:56 PM
Well, Jack MacGowran's good in EVERYTHING. I won't second Mr. DeWitt's verdict of "dreadful" on the film—how could I, as I friggin' recommended it?—but let's say it's certainly of its time.
Leaves one to wonder why no good contemporary film directors have even looked in "Lear"'s direction. No, I'm not talking to you, Joe Swanberg...
Posted by: Glenn Kenny | March 20, 2008 at 09:04 PM
Paul Scofield. He was the guy in SCORPIO, right?
Posted by: Tim Lucas | March 21, 2008 at 02:27 AM
I wish there was a filmed record of his performance in the stage adaptation of Graham Greene's "The Power & The Glory". I've heard how amazing he was in that.
He was always very calmly captivating in everything I'd seen him in. His performance of the Ghost in Zefferelli's "Hamlet" is one of that film's few saving graces, his stoic weariness a refreshing antidote to the general hamminess of the movie and Gibson's lead performance.
Posted by: Geoff Cowgill | March 26, 2008 at 04:36 PM