Art Aragon

LOS ANGELES—Art Aragon, boxing’s original “Golden Boy,” who never won a world title but whose brashness, good looks and celebrity lifestyle made him one of the sport’s biggest drawing cards of the 1940s and 1950s, has died at age 80.

Aragon, who suffered a stroke March 15, died Tuesday at Northridge Hospital Medical Center after being removed from life support, his son, Brad, said Wednesday.

Although top-ranked as a welterweight and lightweight, Aragon lost his only world title fight to lightweight champion James Carter in 1951. Aragon, who struggled to make his weight class throughout his career, said afterward he was weak from having to lose seven pounds in the days before the fight.

In 2006 when he was inducted into the California Boxing Association Hall of Fame.

Aragon had 116 fights with a 90-20-6 record, including 61 wins by knockout. He fought such stars of the era as Tommy Campbell, Jesse Flores and Carmen Basilio, who knocked him down after eight brutal rounds in 1958.

Los Angeles sportswriters gave Aragon the nickname “Golden Boy”—later applied to boxer Oscar De La Hoya—in reference to the 1939 movie of that name that starred William Holden as a prizefighter.

Aragon himself appeared in several small movie and television roles, including the 1955 film “To Hell and Back.”

In addition to Brad, Aragon is survived by his children Georgian, Audie, Mindy and Nancy, and four grandchildren.



Paul Scofield

LONDON—Paul Scofield, a commanding stage and screen actor indelibly stamped on filmgoers’ minds as the doomed philosopher-statesman Sir Thomas More in “A Man For All Seasons,” has died at age 86.

Agent Rosalind Chatto said that Scofield died last week in a hospital. He had been suffering from leukemia.

Scofield won an Academy Award and international fame for the 1966 film “A Man For All Seasons,” in which he played the Tudor statesman and author of “Utopia” executed for treason in 1535 after clashing with King Henry VIII.

But he followed that breakthrough with relatively few film roles. Scofield was a stage actor by inclination.

Scofield’s infrequent films included “A Delicate Balance”; “Henry V,” in which he played the king of France; “Quiz Show,” Robert Redford’s film about a 1950s TV scandal; and the 1996 adaptation of “The Crucible.”

“Quiz Show” brought Scofield a second Oscar nomination, this time as best supporting actor.

Scofield was an unusual star—a family man who lived almost his whole life within a few miles of his birthplace in southern England and hurried home after work to his wife and children. He didn’t seek the spotlight and gave interviews sparingly.

and, at times, seemed to need coaxing to venture out even onto the stage he loved.

In 2001, he was named a Companion of Honor, one of the country’s top honors and limited to 65 living people.

He is survived by his wife and children.