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Paul Scofield Quotes

David Paul Scofield was an English actor of stage and screen who was known for his striking presence, distinctive voice, and for the clarity and effortless intensity of his delivery. Regarded as one of the greatest Shakespearean actors of all time, Scofield preferred the stage to film. This, and his decision to put his family first, meant that he has never been as well-known outside the United Kingdom as some of his peers.

Outside his homeland, Scofield is best known for his Academy, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award- winning performance as Sir Thomas More in the 1966 film A Man for All Seasons. Scofield had originally played the same part on stage in the West End and in a Tony Award-winning performance on Broadway. Scofield is also one of the few actors to achieve the "Triple Crown of Acting", doing so in the shortest time span.

Actress Helen Mirren, who appeared with Scofield in the 1989 film When the Whales Came, said of him, "He aspires to the soul rather than the character. He has no sense of personal ambition. He's one of our great, great actors. We're lucky to have him."In 1990, actor and filmmaker Mel Gibson, who played Scofield's character's son in Franco Zeffirelli's Hamlet, compared the experience to being "thrown into the ring with Mike Tyson." Wikipedia  

✵ 21. January 1922 – 19. March 2008
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Paul Scofield: 11   quotes 0   likes

Famous Paul Scofield Quotes

“If you want a title, what's wrong with Mr? If you have always been that, then why lose your title?
I have a title, which is the same one that I have always had.
But it's not political. I have a CBE, which I accepted very gratefully.”

Paul Scofield

On his refusal of a knighthood.
"Paul Scofield: Man for all seasons" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1092962.stm, BBC News (2000-12-30)

“As an actor I don't admit to any limitations. In rehearsal one comes up against apparently insuperable barriers, but if one can imaginatively get past them, overreach one's natural reach, it is astonishing how elastic one can become. I've got to go not so far as I can, but as far as is needed. It's up to somebody else to say if I've made a fool of myself.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Lyn Gardner, Obituary: Paul Scofield http://arts.guardian.co.uk/theatre/obituary/0,,2266899,00.html, The Guardian (2008-03-20)

“I found at this point that effective acting wasn't what I wanted to do, that I didn't want to make effects, that I wanted, as it were, to leave an impression of a particular kind of human being.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Garry O'Connor, Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons (Applause Books, 2002, ISBN 1-557-83499-7), ch. 22 (p. 131)

“I decided a long time ago I didn’t want to be a star personality and live my life out in public. I don’t think it’s a good idea to wave personality about like a flag and become labeled.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Benedict Nightingale, "Paul Scofield, British Actor, Dies at 86" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/movies/21scofield.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin, The New York Times (2008-03-21)

“It isn't difficult to leave King Lear or Macbeth, but once you have gone back to yourself, you want it to be the same self you have always been.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Alan Strachan, "Paul Scofield: Oscar-winning actor whose phenomenal range was unmatched in his generation" http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/paul-scofield-oscarwinning-actor-whose-phenomenal-range-was-unmatched-in-his-generation-798984.html, The Independent (2008-03-21)

“King Lear is undoubtedly the greatest play ever written by Shakespeare — or anybody else for that matter. Hamlet is certainly great, but it doesn't contain as many elements of humanity as we see in Lear.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Royah Nikkhah, "Scofield's Lear voted the greatest Shakespeare performance" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/08/22/nbard22.xml, Telegraph.co.uk (2004-08-22)

Paul Scofield Quotes

“As you get older, the more you know, so the more nervous you become. The risks are much bigger.”

Paul Scofield

Quoted in Benedict Nightingale, "Paul Scofield, British Actor, Dies at 86," The New York Times (2008-03-21)

“I feel incredibly lucky to have discovered early in my life, practically when I was a child, that I could do something that in the end I finally wanted to do all my life. It has something to do with being completely removed from oneself, which doesn't necessarily mean one is uncomfortable inside oneself. It just means it's a great relief to be inhabiting somebody else. It can be a tremendously liberating sensation.”

Paul Scofield

Dennis McLellan, "Obituary: Paul Scofield, 86; award-winning British actor," The Los Angeles Times (2008-03-21)

Life , Feeling

“Privacy is not negotiable.”

Paul Scofield

Dennis McLellan, "Obituary: Paul Scofield, 86; award- winning British actor" http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-scofield21mar21,1,977642.story, The Los Angeles Times (2008-03-21)

“Oh, I suppose my wife and I will open a bottle of champagne with another couple.”

Paul Scofield

On being told that he had won an Oscar for Best Actor (1967)
Quoted in Robert Simonson, "Paul Scofield, Commanding Actor of the British Stage, Is Dead at 86" http://www.playbill.com/news/article/116080.html, Playbill (2008-03-20)

“Beneath the gentle modesty of his behavior lay the absolute assurance of a born artist.”

Paul Scofield

Peter Brook, Threads of Time: Recollections (Basic Books, 1998, ISBN 1582430187), p. 29

Behavior

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