SOF Congratulates Honorary Trustee Mark Rylance on Oscar Win

The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship congratulates Mark Rylance, Shakespeare authorship doubter and SOF Honorary Lifetime Trustee, for winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the film Bridge of Spies.

Mark Rylance has been a longtime doubter of the traditional theory that William Shakspere of Stratford wrote plays and poems under the name “William Shakespeare.” In 2007, Rylance, along with Derek Jacobi, unveiled the Declaration of Reasonable Doubt on the authorship of Shakespeare’s work after the final matinée of I am Shakespeare, a play on the authorship question written by and starring Rylance. Rylance appeared in the Oxfordian film Anonymous as the actor who played Richard III and the Chorus in Henry V. He has appeared as himself in Last Will. and Testament and Much Ado About Something, two documentaries on the authorship question. In 2015, he was instrumental in persuading the Royal Shakespeare Company to remove negative language about authorship doubters from its website.

Mark Rylance’s artistic credentials are impeccable. He was the first Artistic Director of the modern Globe Theatre, a post he held from 1995 to 2005.  As an actor, he has won, in addition to the Oscar, two Olivier Awards (for Much Ado About Nothing and Jerusalem), three Tony Awards (for Boeing Boeing and Jerusalem, and for playing Olivia–yes, Olivia–in Twelfth Night), and a British Academy Television Award (for The Government Inspector). Hamlet, Romeo, Prospero, Touchstone, and Richard III are among his many Shakespearean roles. PBS viewers last year enjoyed his superb performance as Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall.

The SOF’s designation of Honorary Lifetime Trustee is bestowed upon well-known persons of national or international renown in any field of endeavor who bring special luster to the Oxfordian movement. Other recipients of this honor include actors Sir Derek Jacobi, Michael York, director Roland Emmerich, and screenwriter John Orloff.

The SOF is delighted to celebrate Mark Rylance’s latest artistic achievement and thank him for his continued work in bringing the truth to light.

— Tom Regnier, President
The Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship

[posted February 28, 2016]