Randolph Scott
Sketch of the Day for Friday, September 1, 2017
George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987) 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 (6 ft 2½ in; 189 cm), 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. The BFI Companion to
the Western noted:
In his earlier Westerns ... the Scott persona is debonair,
easy-going, graceful, though with the necessary hint of steel. As he
matures into his fifties his roles change. Increasingly Scott becomes
the man who has seen it all, who has suffered pain, loss, and hardship,
and who has now achieved (but at what cost?) a stoic calm proof against
vicissitude.
During the early 1950s, Scott was a consistent box-office draw. In
the annual Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Polls, he ranked 10th in 1950,
seventh in 1951, and 10th in both 1952 and 1953. Scott also appeared in
the Quigley's Top Ten Money Makers Poll from 1950 to 1953.
Source: Wikipedia
