George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) was an American film actor, whose Hollywood career ran from 1928 to 1962. He was a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, appearing in more than 60 Westerns, and over 40 dramas, comedies, musicals, adventures, war, horror and fantasy films.Buscombe, 1988. p 382.
During the early 1950s, Scott was a consistent box-office draw. In the annual Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Polls, his name appeared every year from 1950 to 1953.Nott 2004, p. 4. Scott also appeared in Quigley's Top Ten Money Makers Poll, from 1950 to 1953. quigleypublishing.com. Retrieved: June 9, 2012.
Early years Scott was born January 23, 1898, in Orange County, Virginia, and reared in Charlotte, North Carolina, the second of six children born to parents of Scottish descent. His father was George Grant Scott, born in Franklin, Virginia, the first person licensed as a certified public accountant (CPA) in North Carolina. His mother was Lucille Crane Scott, born in Luray, Virginia, a member of a wealthy North Carolina family.Nott 2004, p. 7.
Because of his family's financial status, Randolph was able to attend private schools, such as Woodberry Forest School. From an early age, Scott developed and displayed his athleticism, excelling in football, baseball, horse racing, and swimming.
World War I In April 1917, the United States entered World War I. In July, Scott joined a unit of the North Carolina National Guard. He was trained as an artillery observer and earned promotion to corporal in October 1917 and sergeant in February 1918. In May 1918, Scott entered active duty at Fort Monroe, Virginia, as a member of the 2nd Trench Mortar Battalion.Nott 2004, p. 8. The battalion arrived in France in June 1918, and took part in combat with the U.S. IV Corps in the Toul sector and Thiaucourt zone. After the Armistice of November 11, 1918, ended the war, the 2nd TM Battalion took part in the post-war occupation of Germany as part of U.S. VI Corps.
Following the armistice, Scott enrolled in the artillery Officer Candidate School, which was located in Saumur.Nott 2004, p. 8. He received his commission as a second lieutenant of Field Artillery in May 1919 and departed for the United States soon afterwards. He arrived in New York City on June 6 and reported to Camp Mills, where he received his honorable discharge on June 13. Scott made use of his wartime experience in his acting career, including his training in horsemanship and the use of firearms.
After World War I With his military career over Scott continued his education at Georgia Tech, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order and set his sights on becoming an all-American football player. However a back injury prevented him from achieving this goal.Thomas 1981 Scott then transferred to the University of North Carolina, where he majored in textile engineering and manufacturing. He eventually dropped out and went to work as an accountant in the textile firm where his father, a CPA, was employed.Ringgold, Gene. "Randolph Scott: Everyone's Idea of a Southern Gentleman". Films in Review. 1972.
Career
Stage and early film appearances
Early films Around 1927, Scott developed an interest in acting and decided to make his way to Los Angeles and seek a career in the motion picture industry. Scott's father had become acquainted with Howard Hughes and provided a letter of introduction for his son to present to the eccentric millionaire film maker. Hughes responded by getting Scott a small part in a George O'Brien film called Sharp Shooters (1928). A print of the film survives in the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
In the next few years, Scott continued working as an extra and bit player in several films, including Weary River (1929) with Richard Barthelmess, The Far Call (1929), The Black Watch (1929) (directed by John Ford with John Wayne also uncredited) and uncredited as the Rider in The Virginian (1929) with Gary Cooper. Scott also served as Cooper's dialect coach in the film.
Scott was also uncredited on Dynamite (1929) directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and Ford's Born Reckless (1930).
Stage On the advice of Cecil B. DeMille, Scott gained much-needed acting experience by performing in stage plays with the Pasadena Playhouse. His stage roles during this period include:Nott 2004, p. 136.
A minister in Gentlemen Be Seated A butler in Nellie, the Beautiful Model Metellus Cimber in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Hector Malone in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman
Scott appeared in the play Under a Virginia Moon at the Vine Street Theatre in Hollywood in 1932. His performance garnered several screen test offers from the major movie studios. Scott eventually signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Pictures at a salary of US $400 per week ().Nott 2004, p. 10.
Movie debut In between his Pasadena Playhouse days and Vine Street Theatre performance Scott made his film debut.
In 1931 Scott played his first leading role (with Sally Blane) in Women Men Marry (1931), a film, now apparently lost, made by a Poverty Row studio called Headline Pictures. He followed it with a supporting part in a Warner Bros. production starring George Arliss, A Successful Calamity (1932).
Paramount Zane Grey apprenticeship
Scott's first role under his new Paramount contract was a small supporting part in a comedy called Sky Bride (1932) starring Richard Arlen and Jack Oakie.
Following that, however, Paramount cast him as the lead in Heritage of the Desert (1932), which established him as a Western hero. As with Women Men Marry, Sally Blane was his leading lady. Henry Hathaway made his directorial debut with Heritage of the Desert. The film was popular and Scott went on to make ten "B" Western films loosely based on the novels of Zane Grey.
Many of the Grey adaptations were remakes of earlier silent films or retitled versions of recent movies. In an effort to save on production costs, Paramount used stock footage from the silent version and even hired some of the same actors, such as Raymond Hatton and Noah Beery, to reprise their roles, meaning that sometimes their ages would vary eight or more years during the same scene. For the 1933 films The Thundering Herd and Man of the Forest, Scott's hair was darkened and he sported a trim moustache so that he could easily be matched to footage of Jack Holt, the star of the silent versions.
In between his work in the Zane Grey Westerns, Paramount cast Scott in several non-Western roles, including "the other man" in Hot Saturday (1932), with Nancy Carroll and Cary Grant and the romantic male lead in Hello, Everybody! (1933). He made two horror movies, Murders in the Zoo (1933) with Lionel Atwill and Supernatural (1933) with Carole Lombard. After the Western Sunset Pass (1933), Paramount loaned Scott to Columbia for Cocktail Hour (1933), a minor romantic comedy opposite Bebe Daniels.
Back at Paramount, Scott acted in the Westerns Man of the Forest (1933) and To the Last Man (1933), both with Hathaway from Zane Grey novels and featuring Noah Beery Sr. as the villain. Scott was loaned to Monogram Pictures for Broken Dreams (1933) then was back with Hathaway for The Last Round-Up (1934).
Scott did three more Zane Grey Westerns without Hathaway: Wagon Wheels (1934) directed by Charles Barton (a remake of 1931's Fighting Caravans starring Gary Cooper), Home on the Range (1935) from Arthur Jacobson, and Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935) with Barton.
Film historian William K. Everson refers to the Zane Grey series as being "uniformly good".Everson, William K. The Hollywood Western: Ninety Years of Cowboys and Indians, Train Robbers, Sheriffs and Gunslingers. New York. Citadel Press, 1992, First edition 1969. He also writes:
The Zane Grey series films were a boon for Scott, as they provided him with "an excellent training ground for both action and acting".Nott 2005, p. 9.
RKO and "A" Films Paramount loaned Scott to RKO Radio Pictures to support Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Irene Dunne in Roberta (1935), a hugely popular adaptation of the Broadway musical. RKO liked Scott and kept him on for Village Tale (1935), directed by John Cromwell, and She (1935), an adaptation of the novel by H. Rider Haggard from the makers of King Kong.
Scott went back to Paramount for So Red the Rose (1935) with Margaret Sullavan, then was reunited with Astaire and Rogers at RKO in Follow the Fleet (1936).Nott 2004, p. 43. It was another big hit.Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 14 No 1, 1994 p55 Scott was in a car drama at Paramount, And Sudden Death (1936), then was loaned to independent producer Edward Small, to play Hawkeye in another adventure classic, The Last of the Mohicans, adapted from the 1826 novel by James Fenimore Cooper. A big hit, it "gave Scott his first unqualified 'A' picture success as a lead."Nott 2004, p. 58.
At this point Paramount only put Scott in "A" films. He was a love interest for Mae West in Go West, Young Man (1936) and was reunited with Irene Dunne in a musical, High, Wide and Handsome (1937). This last film, a musical directed by Rouben Mamoulian, featured Scott in his "most ambitious performance."Nott 2004, p. 59.
Scott went to 20th Century Fox to play the romantic male lead in a Shirley Temple film, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1938). At Paramount he made a well budgeted Western The Texans (1938) with Joan Bennett; then he starred in The Road to Reno (1938) at Universal. Due to his Southern background, Scott was considered for the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, but the part went to Leslie Howard.
20th Century Fox Scott's contract with Paramount ended and he signed with Fox. They put him in Jesse James (1939), a lavish, highly romanticized account of the famous outlaw outlaw (Tyrone Power) and his brother Frank (Henry Fonda). Scott was billed fourth as a sympathetic marshal. It was his first film in color.
Scott was reunited with Temple in Susannah of the Mounties (1939), Temple's last profitable film for Fox. Scott went over to Warner Bros to make Virginia City (1940), billed third after Errol Flynn and Miriam Hopkins, playing Flynn's antagonist, a Confederate officer, although the villain was played by Humphrey Bogart. There were frequent disputes on the set about script changes. But Michael Curtiz said that Scott tried to stay out of these arguments: "Randy Scott is a complete anachronism," said Curtiz. "He's a gentleman. And so far he's the only one I've met in this business..."Nott 2004 p. 84
Scott was the "other man" in the Irene Dunne–Cary Grant vehicle My Favorite Wife (1940), a huge hit for RKO. For Universal, he starred with Kay Francis in When the Daltons Rode (1940). Back at Fox, Scott returned to Zane Grey country by co-starring with Robert Young in the Technicolor production Western Union, directed by Fritz Lang. Scott played a "good bad man" in this film and gave one of his finest performances. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote:The New York Times, February 7, 1941.
Universal Scott's only true villain role was in Universal's The Spoilers (1942), an adaptation of Rex Beach's 1905 tale of the Alaskan gold rush also starring Marlene Dietrich and John Wayne. Its success led Universal to cast the trio again that same year in Pittsburgh. Scott was billed above Wayne in both films but Wayne played the hero in each.
World War II Shortly after the United States entered World War II, Scott attempted to obtain an officer's commission in the Marines, but because of a back injury years earlier he was rejected. However, he did his part for the war effort by touring in a comedy act with Joe DeRita (who later became a member of the Three Stooges) for the Victory Committee showcases, and he also raised food for the government on a ranch that he owned.Nott 2004, p. 67.