British stage actor Paul Scofield, best known for his Oscar winning portrayal of Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons” (watch the trailer here), has died.

“Acting,” David Hare once said to me, “is a judgment of character.” That was amply borne out by Paul Scofield, who has just died at the age of 86. Scofield had a moral integrity and quiet authority that shone through everything he did. Even his choice of roles was exemplary: many actors trade fame for money, but I can’t think of a single meretricious piece of work Scofield ever did. But, like all great actors, he also had a rich sense of comedy that would often emerge unexpectedly.

A few years back I had the pleasure of presenting Scofield with a lifetime achievement award on behalf of the Critics’ Circle; and I remember saying at the time that I felt I’d measured out my life in Scofield performances. As an eight-year-old, I’d been taken on my first visit to Stratford to see him play Shakespeare’s Troilus. As a 20-year-old student, I’d been present at the first performance, at the Oxford New, of A Man For All Seasons: I still recall his modesty when pushed into taking a solo curtain-call by his fellow actors.

Paul Scofield and Susannah York in “A Man for All Seasons”

From the AP.

Scofield made few films even after the Oscar for his 1966 portrayal of Tudor statesman Sir Thomas More. He was a stage actor by inclination and by his gifts — a dramatic, craggy face and an unforgettable voice that was likened to a Rolls Royce starting up or the rumbling sound of low organ pipes.

Even his greatest screen role was a follow up to a play — the London stage production of “A Man for All Seasons,” in which he starred for nine months. Scofield also turned in a performance in the 1961 New York production that won him extraordinary reviews and a Tony Award.

“With a kind of weary magnificence, Scofield sinks himself into the part, studiously underplays it, and somehow displays the inner mind of a man destined for sainthood,” Time magazine’s said.

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 was an unusual star — a family man who lived almost his entire life within a few miles of his birthplace in southern England and hurried home after work to his wife and children. He didn’t seek the spotlight, gave interviews sparingly, and at times seemed to need coaxing to venture out, even onto the stage he loved.

But, he 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 reportedly had been offered a knighthood, but declined.

“It is just not an aspect of life that I would want,” he once said. “If you want a title, what’s wrong with Mr.?”

Trailer for Fred Zinneman’s 1966 film of “A Man For All Seasons” with Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Susannah York, Orson Welles, Robert Shaw, John Hurt and Leo McKern.



A Man For All Seasons” - Clip “Give The Devil Benefit Of Law”

Although best known for his role as Kinchloe in “Hogan’s Heroes,” actor and director, Ivan Dixon ranks alongside Sidney Poitier as a trailblazer in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Upon learning of Dixon’s death, Poitier issued a statement.

Legendary star Sydney Poitier has paid tribute to veteran actor Ivan Dixon, who has died at the age of 76.
Dixon, who appeared in TV shows including Hogan’s Heroes, died of kidney failure at the Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Sunday (16Mar08).

Fellow thespian Poitier became friends with Dixon when they worked together on 1958 movie The Defiant Ones and has praised the late star, insisting he was often the better actor.

Poitier says in a statement, “As an actor, you had to be careful. He was quite likely to walk off with the scene.”

From Variety,

Actor, director and producer Ivan Dixon, known for his role as Sgt. Kinchloe on “Hogan’s Heroes,” died in Charlotte, N.C. on March 16 after suffering a hemorrhage. He was 76.Dixon received an Emmy nom for the CBS Playhouse special “The Final War of Olly Winter” and appeared in films including “A Raisin in the Sun, “A Patch of Blue” and “Car Wash.”

His directorial credits include hundreds of episodic television shows such as “The Waltons,” “The Rockford Files,” “Magnum P.I.” and “Heat of the Night.” His theatrical film directing credits include “Trouble Man” and “The Spook Who Sat by the Door.”

Born in New York City, Dixon graduated North Carolina Central U. and studied drama at Western Reserve U., Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio and the American Theater Wing in New York.

He began his career on Broadway in such plays as “The Cave Dwellers” and “A Raisin in the Sun.” In addition to roles in feature films “Something of Value” and “Nothing But a Man,” he appeared on TV shows such as “Perry Mason,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Outer Limits” and “The Mod Squad.”

He was honored with four NAACP Image Awards, the National Black Theater Award and the Paul Robeson Pioneer Award from the Black American Cinema Society. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild of America, and the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, he served on numerous Directors Guild and Academy committees, boards and councils.

Trailer for “A Raisin in the Sun”

Trailer for “The Spook Who Sat By the Door”



Twilight Zone episode, “I Am the Night, Color Me Black”

It was just a few days ago that Robert Goulet, awaiting a lung transplant, uttered words of triumph and hope: “Hey, let,’s go, give me a new pair of lungs and I, I’ll hit the high notes till I’m 100.” He has died:

Robert Goulet, who marshaled his dark good looks and thundering baritone voice to play a dashing Lancelot in the original “Camelot” in 1960, then went on to a wide-ranging career as a singer and actor, winning a Tony, a Grammy and an Emmy, died today. He was 73.

The singer died in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant, a Goulet spokesman said in an e-mail, according to the Associated Press.

In September, Mr. Goulet received a diagnosis of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, a rapidly progressive, potentially fatal condition, his wife, Vera, said in a statement released on Oct. 25 on Mr. Goulet’s website. On Oct. 13, he was transferred from a hospital in Las Vegas, where he lived, to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to await the transplant.

After the “Camelot” triumph, Mr. Goulet was called the next great matinee idol. Judy Garland described him as a living 8-by-10 glossy. He was swamped with offers to do movies, television shows and nightclub engagements. Few articles failed to mention his bedroom blue eyes, and many female fans tossed him room keys during performances. His hit song from the show, “If Ever I Would Leave You,” remains a romantic standard.

“Something in his voice evokes old times and romance,” Alex Witchel wrote in the New York Times Magazine in 1993. “He makes you remember corsages.”

Still, Mr. Goulet left a sense that he might have even been more than he was. For a suave musical theater performer, he arrived late, just after Elvis and just before the Beatles. In 1961, The New York Daily News Magazine called him “just the man to help stamp out rock ’n’ roll.” But it was an impossible assignment.

Moreover, the public had begun to lose its appetite for over-the-top entertainment deities. “We’re no longer something that’s on the dark side of the moon — unattainable,” Mr. Goulet told The Saturday Evening Post in 1963.

We pay tribute with a video: Robert Goulet and Barbara Cook’s “Salute to the 1962 Broadway Season. (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Camelot, No Strings & Milk and Honey)