Encyclopedia
George Campbell Scott was a film and stage
actor,
director, and producer. He was best known for his dramatic portrayal of General
George S. Patton in the
Academy Award winning movie,
Patton as well as for his flamboyant portrayal of General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's
.
Early life
Scott was born in
Wise, Virginia, the only son , of George Dewey Scott and Helena Agnes Scott . His mother died just before his eighth birthday, and he was raised by his father, an executive at the
Buick Motor Company.
As a young man, Scott joined the
U.S. Marine Corps , and was assigned to the prestigious 8th and I Barracks in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, he served as a ceremonial guard at
Arlington National Cemetery and he taught English literature and radio speaking/writing at the Marine Corps Institute. Scott later said that his duties at Arlington led to his drinking.
After serving his four-year hitch in the Marines, Scott enrolled in the University of Missouri where he majored in journalism and then became interested in drama; he left college after a year to pursue acting.
Scott began his acting career on Broadway, and achieved critical acclaim portraying the prosecutor in
The Andersonville Trial by Saul Levett. This was based on the military trial of the commandant of the infamous Civil War prison camp in
Andersonville, Georgia. Scott's performance earned him a mention in
Time magazine as a rising young actor of great intensity. Scott also played Richard III on stage and one critic said he was the "angriest" Richard III of all time.
Scott won wide public recognition in the film,
Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 [i] film starring James Stewart [i], George C. Scott [i] ...
, in which he played a wily prosecutor opposite
Jimmy Stewart as the defense attorney. Scott was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor; when he was notified of the nomination, he called the Academy Awards a "meat race". He said, "Actors are the world's oldest, underprivileged minority - looked upon as nothing but buffoons, one step above thieves and charlatans. These award ceremonies simply compound the image for me." Scott's favourite film actress was Bette Davis, whom he called "my bloody idol."
Scott's most famous early role was in
, where he played the part of General "Buck" Turgidson. It is revealed on the DVD commentary that
Stanley Kubrick frequently asked Scott, after the umpteenth take of any given scene, to redo it in an "over the top" fashion. Kubrick would then proceed to use this take in the final cut, for which Scott purportedly resented him.
Scott's greatest role, however, was when he played the swaggering and controversial World War II Army general,
George Patton, in the 1970 movie,
Patton. Scott had researched extensively for the role, studying films of the general and talking to those who knew him. Having declined an Academy Award nomination for his appearance in the 1961 film,
The Hustler, Scott returned his Oscar for
Patton, stating that he didn't feel himself to be in competition with other actors.
It was also in 1970 that Scott directed a very highly acclaimed television version of
The Andersonville Trial. Jack Cassidy won an
Emmy award for his performance as the defense lawyer in this production. In 1971 Scott gave another critically acclaimed performance in the black comedy film
The Hospital. Despite his having snubbed them the previous year, the Academy once again nominated him for the Best Actor award.
Scott had a reputation for being moody and mercurial while on the set. "There is no question you get pumped up by the recognition," he once said, Then a self-loathing sets in when you realise you're enjoying it." He said he'd seen a psychiatrist four times, "I kept laughing. I couldn't get serious. If it helps you, it helps you. If standing on your head on the roof helps you, it helps you - if you think so." There is a famous story that one of his co-stars told the director of Neil Simon's
Plaza Suite: "I don't know what to do, I am scared of him." The director replied, "My dear, everyone is scared of George C. Scott!" The actor also played the starring role in the 1980 horror film, The Changeling where Scott plays a newly widowed music teacher who retreats into an old mansion only to find out that it is haunted by the ghost of a child who was murdered decades ago during the First World War.
In 1984, Scott was cast in the role of
Ebenezer Scrooge in a television adaptation of
A Christmas Carol is Charles Dickens [i]' "little Christmas Book" first published on December 19 [i] ...
. At the time critics and the public alike praised his performance. Some have said his Scrooge ranks alongside
Alastair Sim's. This version is available on
DVD.
Private life
Scott was married twice in the 1950s: to Carolyn Hughes between 1951 and 1955 , and to Patricia Reed between 1955 and 1960 .
In 1960 he married Canadian-born actress Colleen Dewhurst , by whom he had two sons, writer Alexander Scott, and the actor
Campbell Scott . Scott and Dewhurst , were divorced in 1965, but remarried on July 4 1967; they were divorced for a second time on February 2, 1972.
On September 4, 1972, Scott married American actress Trish Van Devere , with whom he starred in several films including the supernatural thriller
The Changling . They were estranged at the time of his death.
George C. Scott died on September 22, 1999 at the age of 71 from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm. He was interred in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in
Westwood, California.
Selected filmography
- Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 [i] film starring James Stewart [i], George C. Scott [i] ...
, 1959 - The Hustler, 1961
- The List of Adrian Messenger, 1963
- Dr. Strangelove is a 1964 [i] Stanley Kubrick [i] ...
, 1964 - Patton, 1970
- Jane Eyre is a classic [i] romance novel [i] by Charlotte Bront [i] which was published ...
, 1970 - The Hospital, 1970
- They Might be Giants, 1971
- The New Centurions, 1972
- Rage, 1972
- The Hindenburg, 1975
- Islands in the Stream, 1977
- Hardcore, 1979
- The Changeling, 1980
- The Formula, 1980
- Taps, sometimes known by the lyrics of its second verse, "Day is Done," is a famous musical pi...
, 1981 - Oliver Twist is an 1838 [i] novel [i] by Charles Dickens [i]. ...
, 1982 - Firestarter is a novel by Stephen King [i] originally published in 1980. ...
, 1984 - A Christmas Carol is Charles Dickens [i]' "little Christmas Book" first published on December 19 [i] ...
, , 1984 - The Exorcist III is a 1990 horror movie [i] directed by William Peter Blatty [i] and bas ...
, 1990 - Angus, 1995
- 12 Angry Men is a film produced in 1957, which tells the story of twelve jurors bound by the accepta...
1997
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