Friday 21 March 2008

Paul Schofield

I had the impression that Paul Schofield, who died yesterday, must have been a sad man; that deep, sad voice and that hangdog expression indicated, to me, someone of a deeply troubled nature. For this reason, I thought, his Lear must have been the perfect role for him - as it turned out, it seemed that it was.
But I had never seen him on stage, only on TV, film and on the radio. So it was something of a revelation to me when I saw him in a stage play by John Osborne, "Hotel in Amsterdam", in which he played a callous, fast- talking, dirty-talking salesman type in a manner that was anything but sad or gloomy. He was immensely funny. He seemed to enjoy taking on a part that was uncharacteristic of him, playing against type and appearing to enjoy himself thoroughly doing it.
Of course his performance in "A Man for all Seasons" will be remembered for a very long time and playing the father of the disgraced intellectual in Robert Redford's "Quiz Show" showed what he could do with a modern role.
But his performance in "Hotel In Amsterdam" I shall remember most; not one of Osborne's best plays and, when shown a couple of years ago on TV, not a play that stood up well to the passage of time.... So maybe it was Schofield who made the play seem so good then.

1 comment:

Mike Crowl said...

I saw Schofield in this play back in 1968; I've just been transcribing a letter I wrote about it (very briefly). Good to find your comments.
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