Seasoned Actor Paul Scofield Ends Run

Paul Scofield, the towering British stage actor who won international fame and an Academy Award for the film "A Man for All Seasons," has died. He was 86. He had been suffering from leukemia.

Actor Richard Burton, once regarded as the natural heir to Laurence Olivier and John Gielgud at the summit of British theater, said it was Scofield who deserved that place. "Of the 10 greatest moments in the theater, eight are Scofield's," he said.

[Scofield] insisted in The Sunday Times in 1992, "my reclusiveness is a myth...Yes, I've turned down quite a lot of parts. At my age you need to weed things out, but the idea that I can't be bothered anymore with acting—that's quite absurd. Acting is all I can do. An actor: That's what I am."

Scofield was also a man for all seasons when not performing. His life was but a stage; Scofield had a time to be More and a time to die. The motion picture, however, is for all times.

[Denver Post]