"In the end...

...it's not a question of reason.  It's a question of love." - A Man For All Seasons

Paul Scofield is dead.  I wish I'd had the chance to see him on stage.  His (few) film performances never failed to awe.  Watch The Train.  Watch Quiz Show.   (The scene where his son confesses his transgressions never fails to kick me in the gut - the disbelief, the horror, the pity, the waste).  And, of course, watch A Man For All Seasons.  What an actor.

He sounds like he was a lovely man to boot.  I get a kick out of everyone's astonishment that he lived such a "normal" life: wife (just the one), kids, long country walks.  I know lots of actors like that.  Some of the best are like that.

I own him a lot.  He is 3/4ths of the reason why I have a devotion to Saint Thomas More.  Call me a rank sentimentalist, but I have this vision of the late Chancellor meeting Mr. Scofield at the gates.  "At last!  Welcome.  Great job.  I have just a couple of notes."  Maybe you have to be a director to find that amusing.

Also, he was something of a dish, wasn't he?  RIP