George Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose
career spanned from 1928 to 1962.
As a leading man for all but the first three
years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including
social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals (albeit in non-singing and
non-dancing roles), adventure tales, war films, and a few horror and fantasy
films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle
Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances over 60 were in
Westerns; thus, "of all the major stars whose name was associated with the
Western, Scott most closely identified with it."
Scott's more than 30 years as a motion picture actor
resulted in his working with many acclaimed screen directors, including Henry
King, Rouben Mamoulian, Michael Curtiz, John Cromwell, King Vidor, Allan Dwan,
Fritz Lang, and Sam Peckinpah. He also worked on multiple occasions with
prominent directors: Henry Hathaway (eight times), Ray Enright (seven), Edwin
L. Marin (seven), André de Toth (six), and most notably, his seven film
collaborations with Budd Boetticher. Scott also worked with a diverse array of
cinematic leading ladies, from Shirley Temple and Irene Dunne to Mae West and
Marlene Dietrich.
Tall, lanky and handsome, Scott displayed an easygoing charm
and courtly Southern drawl in his early films that helped offset his
limitations as an actor, where he was frequently found to be stiff or
"lumbering". As he matured, however, Scott's acting improved while
his features became burnished and leathery, turning him into the ideal
"strong, silent" type of stoic hero.
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