George C. Scott
George Campbell Scott was an American actor. He had a celebrated career on both stage and screen. With a gruff demeanor and commanding presence, Scott became known for his portrayal of stern but complex authority figures.
Described by The Guardian as "a battler and an actor of rare courage", his roles earned him numerous accolades including two Golden Globes, and two Primetime Emmys as well as nominations for two BAFTA Awards and five Tony Awards. Though he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing General George S. Patton in Patton, he became the first actor to decline the award, having warned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences months in advance that he would do so on the basis of his belief that performances cannot be compared to others. His other Oscar-nominated roles include Anatomy of a Murder, The Hustler, and The Hospital.
Scott's other notable films include Dr. Strangelove, Petulia, The Day of the Dolphin, Movie Movie, Hardcore, and The Exorcist III.
Scott gained fame for his roles on television earning two Primetime Emmy Awards for his performances in Hallmark Hall of Fame, and 12 Angry Men. He also played leading roles in Jane Eyre, Beauty and the Beast, and A Christmas Carol. Scott continued to maintain a prominent stage career even as his film stardom waned, and by the end of his career he had accrued five Tony nominations for his performances in Comes a Day, The Andersonville Trial, Uncle Vanya, Death of a Salesman, and Inherit the Wind. He directed several of his own films and plays and often collaborated with his wives Colleen Dewhurst and Trish Van Devere.
Early life and education
George Campbell Scott was born on the kitchen table on October 18, 1927—the younger of two siblings—in the modest Wise, Virginia, home of his parents, Gerald Dewey Scott and Helena Agnes. His mother was the first cousin, once removed, of Republican Congressman C. Bascom Slemp. His maternal grandfather was a local jurist, Judge Campbell Slemp. Scott's mother died just before his eighth birthday, and he was raised by his father, an executive at Buick. Scott's original ambition was to be a writer like his favorite author, F. Scott Fitzgerald. While attending Redford High School in Detroit, he wrote many short stories, none of which were published. He tried on many occasions to write a novel, but never completed one to his own satisfaction.After high school, Scott enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving from 1945 to 1949. He was assigned to 8th and I Barracks in Washington, D.C., and his primary duty was serving as honor guard at military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. He later said that during his duty at Arlington, " pick up a solid drinking habit that stayed with me from then on."
Following military service, Scott enrolled at the University of Missouri on the G.I. Bill where he majored in journalism and then became interested in drama. His first public appearance on stage was as the barrister in a university production of Terence Rattigan's The Winslow Boy, directed by H. Donovan Rhynsburger. During rehearsals for that show, he made his first stage appearance—in a student production of Noël Coward's Hands Across the Sea, directed by Jerry V. Tobias. He graduated from the university in 1953 with degrees in English and theater.
Career
1958–1962: Early roles
Scott first rose to prominence for his work with Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. In 1958, he won an Obie Award for his performances in Children of Darkness, for As You Like It, and for playing the title character in William Shakespeare's Richard III .Scott's Broadway debut was in Comes a Day which had a short run. At the 13th Tony Awards, he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Scott's television debut was in a 1958 adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities for the Dupont Show of the Month directed by Robert Mulligan. He also appeared in a televised version of The Outcasts of Poker Flat plus episodes of Kraft Theatre, and Omnibus. Scott's feature film debut was in The Hanging Tree, starring Gary Cooper and Maria Schell.
Scott earned his first Academy Award nomination in Best Supporting Actor category for his performance in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder. Later that year he appeared on Broadway in The Andersonville Trial by Saul Levitt directed by Jose Ferrer, earning Tony Award nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his portrayal of the prosecutor. This was based on the military trial of the commandant of the infamous Civil War prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia. It ran for 179 performances from December 1959 to June 1960.
Scott received good reviews for The Wall which ran for 167 performances. He guest-starred on episodes of Sunday Showcase, Playhouse 90, Play of the Week, Dow Hour of Great Mysteries, and a Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Winterset, originally written for the stage. Scott received superb notices for his performance in The Hustler. He returned to Broadway to direct General Seeger by Ira Levin but it only lasted two performances. The play Great Day in the Morning, in which he was directed by José Quintero, also had only a brief run.
Scott was in much demand for guest shots on TV shows, appearing in episodes of Ben Casey and Naked City. In 1962, Scott appeared as school teacher Arthur Lilly on NBC's The Virginian, in the episode "The Brazen Bell", in which he recites Oscar Wilde's poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol". That same year, he appeared in NBC's medical drama The Eleventh Hour, in the episode "I Don't Belong in a White-Painted House". He appeared opposite Laurence Olivier and Julie Harris in Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory in a 1961 television production and also performed in The Merchant of Venice off-Broadway.
1963–1969: Breakthrough
Scott's first leading role in a feature was The List of Adrian Messenger released in 1963. That year, Scott starred in the hour-long television drama series East Side/West Side. He portrayed a New York City social worker, along with co-stars Cicely Tyson and Elizabeth Wilson. Scott was a major creative influence on the show, resulting in conflicts with James T. Aubrey, the head of CBS. The Emmy Award-winning program had a series of guest stars, including James Earl Jones. The portrayal of challenging urban issues made attracting advertisers difficult, not helped by the limited distribution. Not all CBS network affiliates broadcast the show, and it was canceled after one season. Scott had a success during 1963 in an off-Broadway production of Desire Under the Elms.Scott's highest-profile early role was in the Stanley Kubrick–directed Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, in which he played General "Buck" Turgidson. In later interviews with Kubrick, Scott was revealed to have initially refused to camp it up on camera. As a compromise, Kubrick had Scott go over the top in rehearsal, assuring Scott that the cameras were off, which was untrue. Somehow, Scott was unable to hear the very loud motor on the 35mm film cameras of the time. Kubrick proceeded to use this version in the final cut, which Scott supposedly resented. Scott was one of many stars in The Yellow Rolls-Royce.
Scott was cast, under the direction of John Huston in Dino de Laurentiis's The Bible: In the Beginning, which was released by 20th Century Fox in 1966. Also in 1966, Scott appeared as Jud Barker in the NBC western The Road West, starring Barry Sullivan, Kathryn Hays, Andrew Prine, and Glenn Corbett. He also guest starred in Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre. He co-starred with Tony Curtis in the comedy film Not with My Wife, You Don't! and as John Proctor in a television version of The Crucible.
Scott returned to Broadway in 1967 to direct Dr. Cook's Garden by Ira Levin but quit during tryouts. As an actor, he appeared in a revival of The Little Foxes directed by Mike Nichols, which ran for 100 performances. Scott starred in The Flim-Flam Man and Petulia. He appeared in the television film Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall.
1970–1979: Established star
Scott played George S. Patton in the film Patton and researched extensively for the role, studying films of the general and talking to those who knew him. Scott declined the Oscar nomination for Patton, just as he had done for his nomination in 1962 for The Hustler, but won the award anyway.In a letter to the Motion Picture Academy, he stated that he did not feel himself to be in competition with other actors. However, regarding this second rejection of the Academy Award, Scott famously said elsewhere, "The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don't want any part of it." The Best Picture Oscar for Patton was given to the George C. Marshall Foundation Library at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, the same institution that generations of Pattons attended, by producer Frank McCarthy a few weeks after the awards ceremony, and is on display there. Scott accepted the New York Film Critics Award. His then-wife Colleen Dewhurst said, "George thinks this is the only film award worth having".
During the early 1970s, Scott appeared in the British film Jane Eyre as Mr. Rochester and the made-for-television film The Price, a version of the Arthur Miller play. For the latter role, he won an Emmy Award, which he accepted. He also directed a TV version of The Andersonville Trial. Scott then returned his focus to feature films. He appeared in They Might Be Giants with Joanne Woodward, and The Last Run for director Richard Fleischer, with his wife Colleen Dewhurst and also with Trish Van Devere, who would become his fourth and last wife. Scott had a big hit with based on a script by Paddy Chayefksy; and The New Centurions directed by Flesicher based on a book by Joseph Wambaugh.
Scott then appeared in a series of box office flops, beginning with Rage, which he both directed and starred in. He then appeared in Oklahoma Crude directed by Stanley Kramer; The Day of the Dolphin directed by Mike Nichols, in which Scott appeared with Van Devere; Bank Shot, directed by Gower Champion; and The Savage Is Loose, which co-starred Van Devere and which Scott himself directed. Scott returned to television with Fear on Trial ; and starred in the disaster film The Hindenburg for director Robert Wise.
Scott had a big Broadway hit with Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, directed by Mike Nichols. The show was composed of three separate one-act plays all using the same set, with Scott portraying a different lead character in each act; it ran for 1,097 performances. Scott directed a production of All God's Chillun Got Wings which starred Van Devere and only had a short run. He directed and played Willy Loman in a 1975 revival of Death of a Salesman, for which he garnered another Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Play. Scott was again Tony–nominated in the same category for his performance as Astrov in a 1973 revival of Uncle Vanya, directed by Nichols, which ran for 64 performances. Scott starred in a well-received production of Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox, which ran 495 performances.
Scott appeared in a television production of Beauty and the Beast, with Trish Van Devere. He later starred as an Ernest Hemingway-based artist in Islands in the Stream directed by Schaffner and based on Hemingway's posthumously published novel. He had a cameo in Crossed Swords directed by Fleischer, then had the lead in Movie Movie directed by Stanley Donen, costarring with Van Devere, and Hardcore written and directed by Paul Schrader.