Yeah, his part in Lear was highly acclaimed. He's been doing a lot of theatre work lately.
He was also in the running to play Bilbo in the The Lord of the Rings and was only narrowly beaten out by Ian Holm. If Sir Ian's unable to return when they film The Hobbit, due to his health not being 100% for the intensive filming schedule, I hope that they give Sylvester a second chance.