George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22,1999) 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 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

Early life

Scott was born in Wise, Virginia, the only son (he had one older sister), of George Dewey Scott (1902-1987) and Helena Agnes Scott (1904-1935). 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 (1945-1949), 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 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, 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 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 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 (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 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.[1]

In 1984, Scott was cast in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in a television adaptation of A Christmas Carol. 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 (two daughters, Michelle and Victoria), and to Patricia Reed between 1955 and 1960 (two children, Matthew, and actress Devon Scott who was born on November 29, 1958).

In 1960 he married Canadian-born actress Colleen Dewhurst (born June 3, 1924), by whom he had two sons, writer Alexander Scott, and the actor Campbell Scott (born July 19, 1962). Scott and Dewhurst (who nicknamed her husband "GS"), 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 (born March 9, 1943), with whom he starred in several films including the supernatural thriller The Changling (1979). 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, 1959
• The Hustler, 1961
• The List of Adrian Messenger, 1963
• Dr. Strangelove, 1964
• Patton, 1970
• Jane Eyre, 1970
• The Hospital, 1970
• They Might be Giants, 1971
• The New Centurions, 1972
• The Hindenburg, 1975
• Islands in the Stream, 1977
• Hardcore, 1979
• The Changeling, 1980
• The Formula, 1980
• Taps, 1981
• Oliver Twist, 1982
• Firestarter, 1984
• A Christmas Carol, (telefilm), 1984
• The Exorcist III, 1990
• Angus, 1995
• 12 Angry Men 1997

External links

• George C. Scott at IMDb
• Ancestry of George C. Scott (by Kip Hamilton) on World Connect
• George C. Scott's Gravesite