A Man for All Seasons (1966 film)

A Man for All Seasons
Directed byFred Zinnemann
Screenplay byRobert Bolt
Based onA Man for All Seasons
1960 play
by Robert Bolt
Produced byFred Zinnemann
Starring
CinematographyTed Moore
Edited byRalph Kemplen
Music byGeorges Delerue
Production
company
Highland Films
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release dates
  • 12 December 1966 (1966-12-12) (USA)
  • March 1967 (1967-03) (UK)
Running time
120 minutes[1]
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$2 million
Box office$28.4 million[2]

A Man for All Seasons is a 1966 British historical drama film directed and produced by Fred Zinnemann, adapted by Robert Bolt from his play of the same name. It depicts the final years of Sir Thomas More, the 16th-century Lord Chancellor of England who refused both to sign a letter asking Pope Clement VII to annul Henry VIII of England's marriage to Catherine of Aragon and to take an Oath of Supremacy declaring Henry Supreme Head of the Church of England.

Paul Scofield, who had played More in the West End stage premiere, also took the role in the film, starring alongside Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Susannah York, and Orson Welles. Also appearing are Nigel Davenport, Leo McKern, Corin Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave and, in one of his earliest screen roles, John Hurt. The film was released by Columbia Pictures on 12 December 1966.

A Man for All Seasons was a critical and box-office success. It won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 39th Academy Awards, while the cast and crew won another five, including Best Director for Zinnemann and Best Actor for Scofield. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama and the BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Best British Film. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 43rd greatest British film of all time.

  1. ^ "A Man for All Seasons (U)". British Board of Film Classification. 13 December 1966. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference numbers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).