Oscar-winning actor difficult to tempt away from the stage

Actor Paul Scofield, who died on 19 March, 2008, was a distinguished British star of stage and screen who was acclaimed for his portrayal of King Lear and won an Oscar for his role in A Man for All Seasons.

He played Henry VIII's adversary Sir Thomas More in the 1966 film, which was directed by the great Fred Zinnemann and won a total of six Oscars. Many have commented that his renown as a movie star could have been much greater were it not for his commitment to the theatre, a field in which he commanded the utmost respect.

He had the distinction of playing nearly all of Shakespeare's leading men and his Lear was named as the greatest performance the Royal Shakespeare Company had ever seen in a 2004 poll. "You will never see such another," wrote the renowned critic Kenneth Tynan in 1962.

David Paul Scofield was born on 21 January, 1922, and raised in the Sussex village of Hurstpierpoint where his father was headmaster of the local school. He attended a boys' school in Brighton and there he made his first acting appearances.

He was accepted into Oxford but left after a few months to pursue his acting ambitions, making his professional debut in London in 1940. The Second World War threatened to stymie his career, but he was rejected by the army on medical grounds, allowing him to continue performing with the repertory circuit.

Early reviews were glowing, comparing him to none other than Laurence Olivier. During the late 1940s he made his first Shakespeare appearance as Henry V in Stratford-upon-Avon and in 1949 he gave the first of many career-shaping performances, playing twin brothers in Ring Round the Moon at the Aldwych Theatre in London.

He made his film debut in 1955 in Terence Young's That Lady, for which he won a BAFTA as 'Best Newcomer', but he had made only two further screen appearances by the time he played More alongside Robert Shaw, Orson Welles and John Hurt in A Man for All Seasons.

His poignant display earned him the Academy Award for 'Best Actor' and a flurry of movie parts, including the Accountant in Bartleby (1970) and King Lear in 1971, a reprisal of his glorious stage turn of the same part. Over the years he also appeared in adaptations of classics like Anna Karenina (1985), Henry V (1989) and The Crucible (1996).

But theatre remained his main career interest and he had many seasons at Stratford and with the National Theatre - in 1955 he was even invited to play Hamlet in the USSR. Productions of The Power and the Glory, Savages and Amadeus were among his diverse range. Like Hollywood, Broadway was frequently knocking on his door, but he was wary of America, having seen it destroy the careers of many of his British contemporaries.

His approach to each role, even light-hearted ones such as that in the 1958 musical, Expresso Bongo, was to present the characters as basely human, free of glamour, sentimentality and other crowd-pleasing facets.

He was also known to hold acting second to his family, including his wife since 1943, actress Joy Parker, and their two children. "If you have a family, that is to be remembered," he once said.

As well as his Oscar, his awards included a Golden Globe, an Emmy, three BAFTAs, a Tony and a 'Lifetime Achievement' award from the London Critics Circle. He famously turned down a knighthood three times.

He never regretted his decision to concentrate on the theatre over cinema. "The theatre has always come first," he said. "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."