Paul Scofield, the dignified British stage and screen actor with an inimitable melodious voice, and whose portrayal of Sir Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons earned him a best actor Oscar®, died on March 19 of leukemia at a hospital in West Sussex, England. He was 86.

He was born David Paul Scofield on January 21, 1922 in Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, England. Scofield got his first taste for acting, humorously enough, when he was still a youth in the drama club at school when he had to play Juliet (complete with a blonde wig by his own account) in a production of Romeo and Juliet. He avoided military service during the war because of his deformed toes, Scofield spent the next few years learning his craft with diligence, working with touring companies and joining the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1944 where he blossomed as a classical actor of the highest order.

After his stage success, Scofield made his film debut opposite Olivia De Havilland as King Philip II of Spain in the historical drama That Lady (1955). In between the stage work, Scofield made only two more film appearances - with Virginia McKenna in the popular English war drama Carve Her Name with Pride (1958) and more notably as a Nazi villain in John Frankenheimer's exciting war actioner The Train (1964).

It would be his next film that him a (somewhat reluctant) star. Having played the role of Sir Thomas More, in Robert Bolt's play A Man For All Season's in London and on Broadway, Scofield was the obvious choice for director Fred Zinnemann to cast for the film adaptation. Tall, commanding and intelligent, he breathed life into the charismatic More, the famed foe of King Henry VIII whose refusal to side with the monarch's break with the Roman Catholic Church resulted in his death. The film justly won Scofield an Oscar® for Best Actor as it did for Zinnemann for Best Director and Best Picture.

True to his theatrical roots, Scorfield continued to work on the stage and film appearances were far fewer than fans would have preferred. Stiil, his sporadic performances in films such as A Delicate Balance (1973) with Laurence Olivier and Katharine Hepburn; Kenneth Branagh's hip reworking of Henry V (1989); and Franco Zeffirelli's equally twisted adaptation of Hamlet (1990) with Mel Gibson in the title role, were always welcomed.

The '90s witnessed even moreScofield performances on film. First, by playing poet Mark Van Doren, Ralph Fiennes' disapproving father in Robert Redford's Quiz Show (1994) for which he earned an Oscar® nomination; he followed that up with the a delightful turn as old Martin Chuzzlewit in a the BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit (also 1994); he also earned a BAFTA award for his last major film work as the imposing Judge Thomas Danforth in The Crucible (1996). He is survived by his wife of 65 years, the actress Joy Parker; a son, Martin; and a daughter, Sarah.

by Michael T. Toole