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Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons (Hardcover)

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As someone who much admires Paul Scofield, but only had access to his movies, I liked to know more about his work (until 2000), principally in theater, and this book supplied me with some photos, reviews, some interviews, and descriptions about Paul Scofield and his wonderful life as the best actor I have seen. That is an opinion shared by many others, indeed his "King Lear" was chosen as the best ever Shakespeare performance in a unique poll (2004)of members of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Besides his work as an actor, I came to admire more the man for his self-assurance and adult balance. As Felice Kendall said to the author: "He's like an adult. Most actors are like children".
Sure, I'd like that he had made more films, but as he said: "A long time ago, I realised I should have to choose between films and theatre--and the theatre has always come first. I'm not an actor because I feel the need to say `Look at me, aren't I clever?' I don't have an inferiority complex I must disguise. I'm an actor because...oh, because I'm good at it. I can say honestly and, I hope, without self-satisfaction, that I'm happy with my lot."

I recommend this book and I hope that all his films (includind TV) be released in DVD.

"Paul Scofield: An Actor for All Seasons" would seem to be an excellent argument that just because someone has had a successful career doesn't make them a prime candidate for a biography. For despite Scofield's acting triumphs in such roles as Thomas More, Solieri, King Lear, Hamlet, and John Gabriel Borkman, he is depicted in Garry O'Connor's relatively slim volume as a quiet, modest and rather shy man.

This is not in any way meant as a criticism of Scofield, and indeed it is refreshing to encounter such an unassuming personality compared with such personally unpleasant Shakespearean Titans as Laurence Olivier or Donald Wolfit. But that is the major problem with the book: with such a demure central figure as Scofield, the narrative is primarily a bland chronology of the actor's various stage roles.

Had O'Connor anything profoundly interesting to say about Scofield as an actor, the verdict might have been different, but he primarily offers up tired hyperbole of the actor's "greatness" without ever really putting his finger on what set Scofield apart from his contemporaries. Even his chronology is inaccurate, writing, for instance, that Scofield filmed his role in "The Train" from summer into Autumn of 1966 (after he had appeared in the Oscar winning film of "A Man for All Seasons"), whereas "The Train" was actually released in Europe in the autumn of 1964 (more than two years before "A Man for All Seasons").

If this sounds like harsh criticism of O'Connor's book, it isn't meant to be. Scofield is simply a quiet, dignified man whose life doesn't lend itself to the kind of larger-than-life biography of an Olivier or a John Gielgud. This is likely to be as good a biography as we'll ever see of Scofield, a fine actor and a good man whose life isn't really all that interesting when recounted in print.