Trivia for
A Man for All Seasons (1966) More at IMDbPro »

• Orson Welles used an exact duplicate of Cardinal Wolsey's official seal, as well as authentic sheepskin parchment and a quill pen.
  
  
• Richard Burton turned down the role of Sir Thomas More.
  
  
• Eira Heath considered turning her part down because it was so tiny.
  
  
• Truckloads of Styrofoam were ordered to simulate a snowy landscape. As soon as it was delivered, real snow began falling.
  
  
• Vanessa Redgrave refused to be paid for her cameo role as Anne Boleyn.
  
  
• Norman Scace was offered a featured role but was not free because the dates clashed with a play.
  
  
• Dilys Watling auditioned for a featured role.
  
  
• Nicholas Grimshaw was offered a featured role but confusion over the offer meant he accepted a stage role instead.
  
  
• The producers originally wanted Laurence Olivier as Thomas More and Alec Guinness as Wolsey, but director Fred Zinnemann insisted on Paul Scofield and Orson Welles in the roles.
  
  
• Charlton Heston lobbied heavily for the role of Thomas More, but was never seriously considered by the producers as a candidate for the role. Heston would go on to play More in several stage productions of the play and ultimately film a television production of it in 1988.
  
  
• Robert Bolt offered the part of Norfolk to his friend, American actor-director John Huston. Huston turned it down.
  
  
• Paul Scofield and Leo McKern reprised the roles they played in the Broadway production of the play. During most of the play's 20-month run, the role of Margaret was played by a young Faye Dunaway.
  
  
• The original play opened at the ANTA Playhouse (New York) on November 21, 1961 and played for 637 performances starring Paul Scofield.
  
  
• In the first (London) run of the play, Leo McKern played not Cromwell but the Common Man, a narrator-figure who addresses the audience and plays several characters in the story - More's servant Matthew, the man who rows him home, his jailer, etc. These characters also appear in the film, but are played by several actors. The original stage device of having them all played by the same actor was kept in the 1988 version. In the play, the lines stating what happened to the historical figures after More's death are spoken by the 'Common Man'; in the film, they are spoken in voice-over at the end by Colin Blakely, who plays Matthew.
  
  
• One of only 4 productions to win both the Best Play Tony (1962) and the Best Picture Oscar (1966). The other 3 are My Fair Lady (1957/1964), The Sound of Music (1960/1965) and Amadeus (1981/1984).
  
  
• Paul Scofield won the 1962 Tony Award (New York City) for Actor in a Drama for "A Man for All Seasons" and recreated his role in the filmed production.
  
  
• According to Welles, he had Zinnemann removed from the set and directed his scenes himself.
  
  

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