George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 - September 22,1999) was a stage and film actor, director, and producer. He was best known for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of General George S. Patton Jr. in the film Patton, as well as for his flamboyant performance as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Early life

George was born in Wise, Virginia to George Dewey Scott (1902-1987) and Helena Agnes Scott (1904-1935), the only son and younger of their two children. 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, George's original ambition was to be a writer like his idol, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and while in high school, he wrote many short stories, none of which were ever published. As an adult, he tried on many occasions to write a novel, but was never able to complete one to his satisfaction. When asked by an interviewer in later life which contemporary novelists he admired, he replied, "I stopped reading novels when I stopped trying to write them."

George joined the U.S. Marine Corps, serving from 1945 until 1949, 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 taught English literature and radio speaking/writing at the Marine Corps Institute. George later said that his duties at Arlington led to his drinking.

After his military service, George 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.

Broadway and film career

George began his acting career on Broadway, and achieved critical acclaim portraying the prosecutor in The Andersonville Trial by Saul Levitt. This was based on the military trial of the commandant of the infamous Civil War prison camp in Andersonville, Georgia. George's performance earned him a mention in Time magazine as a rising young actor of great intensity. In 1970 George directed a highly acclaimed television version of this same play. It starred William Shatner, Richard Basehart and Jack Cassidy who was nominated for an Emmy award for his performance as the defense lawyer in this production.

In 1963, George was top billed in the critically acclaimed CBS hour-long drama series East Side, West Side; he and co-star Cicely Tyson played urban social workers. Perhaps too gritty and stark for 1963, the show lasted only one season.

George also won an Obie Award for his performance as Richard III for the New York Shakespeare Festival, a performance one critic said was the "angriest" Richard III of all time.

George won wide public recognition in the film, Anatomy of a Murder, in which he played a wily prosecutor opposite Jimmy Stewart as the defense attorney. George was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor; when he was notified of the nomination, he called the Academy Awards a "meat parade" or "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."^{[citation needed]}

George's most famous early role was in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, where he played the part of General "Buck" Turgidson. It is revealed on the DVD documentary that after having shot many takes of any given scene, Stanley Kubrick would frequently ask George to redo it in an "over the top" fashion. Kubrick would then proceed to use this version in the final cut, which George supposedly resented. However, Kubrick did earn George's respect on this film, since by that time, George was an accomplished chess player. The cast and crew noted they would often play chess between takes, and Kubrick was the only person who could routinely beat George.

George's portrayal of the swaggering and controversial General Patton in the 1970 film Patton has become, to many, his greatest performance. Many film critics and historians consider it one of the greatest performances in the history of cinema. George 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, George returned his Oscar for Patton, stating in a letter to the Academy that he didn't feel himself to be in competition with other actors. However, also regarding this second rejection of the Academy Award, George famously said elsewhere, "The whole thing is a goddamn meat parade. I don't want any part of it." ^[1] In the mid-80s, George reprised his role as Patton for a television movie. At the time that sequel was aired, George mentioned in a TV Guide interview that he had verbally told the Academy to donate his Oscar to the Patton Museum; since the instructions were never put in writing, it was never delivered. The Oscar is currently displayed in a museum at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia, the institution that generations of Pattons have attended.

Sixteen years later, George reprised his Patton title role in a made-for-television sequel, The Last Days of Patton, which was produced in 1986. The movie was based on Patton's final weeks after being mortally injured in a car accident, with flashbacks of Patton's life.

In 1971, George gave two more critically acclaimed performances, as a de facto Sherlock Holmes in They Might Be Giants, and as an alcoholic doctor in the black comedy The Hospital. Despite his repeated snubbing of the Academy, George was again nominated for Best Actor for the latter role. George excelled on television that year as well, appearing in an adaptation of Arthur Miller's The Price, an installment of the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology. George was nominated for, and won, an Emmy Award for his role, which he accepted. George's reasoning for keeping an Emmy after rejecting an Oscar was believed to be because the Emmy Award winners were chosen by blue-ribbon panels of experts, while Academy Award winners were chosen by the entire Academy membership.

The actor also starred in the popular 1980 horror film The Changeling, with Melvyn Douglas. He received the Canadian Genie Award for Best Foreign Film Actor for his performance. [1]

In 1984, George was cast in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in a television adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Critics and the public alike praised his performance. Some have said his Scrooge ranks alongside Alastair Sim's portrayal in the 1951 theatrical film. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for the role.

In 1990, he voiced the villain Smoke in the TV special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, where his character was alongside popular cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny. That same year, he voice acted the villain Percival McLeach in the Disney film, The Rescuers Down Under. The following year, he hosted the TV series Weapons At War on A&E TV, but was replaced after one season by Gerald McRaney for the last two seasons. Weapons At War moved to The History Channel with George still being shown as host for the first season. His episodes would be replaced by Robert Conrad in 2000 after George's death the previous year.

George 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 anecdote that one of his stage co-stars, Maureen Stapleton, told the director of Neil Simon's Plaza Suite: "I don't know what to do, I am scared of him." The director, Mike Nichols, replied, "My dear, everyone is scared of George C. Scott!"

George's favorite film actress was Bette Davis, whom he called "my bloody idol."

Private life

George was married five times:

1. Carolyn Hughes (1951–1955) (one daughter, Victoria, born December 19 1952)
2. Patricia Reed (1955–1960) (two children: Matthew - born May 27 1957 - and actress Devon Scott - born November 29 1958).
3. The Canadian-born actress Colleen Dewhurst, by whom he had two sons, writer Alexander Scott (born August 1960), and actor Campbell Scott (born July 19 1961). Dewhurst nicknamed her husband "G.C.". (1960–1965)
4. He remarried Colleen Dewhurst on July 4 1967, but divorced for a second time on February 2 1972.
5. The American actress Trish Van Devere on September 4, 1972, with whom he starred in several films, including the supernatural thriller The Changeling (1980). They were estranged at the time of his death.

He also had a daughter, Michelle, born August 21 1954, with Karen Truesdell.

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. He is buried next to Walter Matthau, in an unmarked grave. ^[2]

Filmography

• The Hanging Tree (1959)
• Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
• The Hustler (1961)
• The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
• The Car That Became a Star (1965) (short subject)
• The Bible: In the Beginning (1966)
• Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966)
• The Flim-Flam Man (1967)
• Petulia (1968)
• Patton (1970)
• Jane Eyre (1970)
• They Might Be Giants (1971)
• The Last Run (1971)
• The Hospital (1971)
• The New Centurions (1972)
• Rage (1972)
• Oklahoma Crude (1973)
• The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
• Bank Shot (1974)
• The Savage Is Loose (1974)
• The Hindenburg (1975)
• Beauty and the Beast (TV) (1976)
• Islands in the Stream (1977)
• Crossed Swords (1977)
• Movie Movie (1978)
• Hardcore (1979)
• The Changeling (1980)
• The Formula (1980)
• Taps (1981)
• A Christmas Carol (1984)
• Firestarter (1984)
• Mussolini: The Untold Story (TV) (1985)
• The Last Days of Patton (TV) (1986)
• The Exorcist III (1990)
• The Rescuers Down Under (1990) (voice)
• Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (1990) (voice)
• Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991) (documentary)
• Malice (1993)
• Angus (1995)
• 12 Angry Men (1997)
• Country Justice (TV) (1997)
• Gloria (1999)

References

External links

• George C. Scott at IMDb
• Ancestry of George C. Scott (by Kip Hamilton) on World Connect
• George C. Scott's Gravesite
• Template:Tvtome person
• [2] www.hollywoodusa.co.uk/WestwoodObituaries/georgecscott