Tony-Winner and Shakespeare Actor Paul Rogers Passes Away

The Telegraph writes that Tony-winning stage, television and film star Paul Rogers has passed away. He was 96.

Rogers is well known for his work with the Old Vic in the 1950s, where he starred in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Henry VIII, Macbeth, King Lear and more. He performed as Falstaff in Henry IV at the Old Vic, reprising the role a decade later for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The Old Vic took its Shakespearean prowess to Broadway in 1956, where Rogers appeared in King Richard II, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Troilus and Cressida.

Rogers then starred in the title role in Eliot's play The Elder Statesman at the Edinburgh Festival in 1958.

When he joined the RSC, he starred in Harold Pinter's new play The Homecoming, which transferred to Broadway in 1967. Rogers took home that year's Tony Award for Best Actor in a Drama.

Following his Tony win, Rogers took the Broadway stage in Here's Where I Belong and Sleuth, followed by Heartbreak House at The National Theatre in 1975, and then back to Broadway in The Dresser in 1981.

Rogers starred on the small screen in Butterflies Don't Count, The Executioner, Brigadista, Porterhouse Blue, The Fear, Lovejoy, Kavanagh CQ and The Return of the Native. His film work includes Billy Budd, The Looking Glass War, Murder In The Cathedral, Our Man In Havana, Three Into Two Won't Go, Shoes Of A Fisherman and The Homecoming.

Photo Credit: Pamela Chandler / ArenaPAL

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