Widely regarded as the one of greatest stage and screen actors both in his native Great Britain and internationally, Paul Rogers was born in Plympton, Devon, attended Newton Abbot Grammar School and then trained as an actor at the Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio at Dartington Hall. After he served in the Royal Navy from 1940 to 1946 and thus during WWII, he returned to acting at the Bristol Old Vic. In his very distinguished course of brilliant performances, he had also been a long-serving member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he offered a wide range of memorable roles due to the uniqueness of his acting qualities. In 1965 he originated the part of Max in Harold Pinter's "The Homecoming", for which he was honored with Broadway's 1967 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, and recreated the role for its film version The Homecoming (1973), both directed by Peter Hall, with whom he also worked in Le songe d'une nuit d'été (1968). Amongst much else of his marvelous stage work, in 1963 he had been nominated for a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play for Peter Ustinov's "Photo Finish" and in 1981 he played the role of Sir in Ronald Harwood's "The Dresser" on Broadway.