Scott, George C.

Scott, George C. (George Campbell Scott), 1927–99, American actor, b. Wise, Va. Fiery and intense, Scott played his first major roles in Richard III, The Merchant of Venice, and As You Like It for the New York Shakespeare Festival. Other plays included The Andersonville Trial (1959), Uncle Vanya (1973), an elderly Huckleberry Finn in The Boys in Autumn (1986), and a lawyer based on Clarence Darrow in Inherit the Wind (1996). He gradually began to devote more attention to film, proving to be a strong, sometimes overpowering presence. His films include Anatomy of a Murder (1959), The Hustler (1962), Dr. Strangelove (1964), Hospital (1972), Islands in the Stream (1977), Taps (1982), and Gloria (1999). He won an Academy Award for Patton (1970), usually considered his finest film performance, but refused it. He reprised his role as the four-star general in a 1986 television movie. Late in his career he also directed plays and films.

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Scott, George C. (Campbell) (1927–  ) stage/movie actor; born in Wise, Va. He grew up in Detroit, then served in the U.S. Marine Corps (1945–49). After starting at the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, he changed to English and drama and began to act in student shows (1949–53). He spent the next four years holding odd jobs as he worked in stock companies in Toledo, Ohio, Washington, D.C., and Ontario, Canada. His New York stage debut in the 1957 Shakespeare Festival brought him such praise that he was soon taking leading roles in both stage plays and movies. In 1963–64 he starred in an admired TV series, East Side, West Side. His most celebrated movie role was in Patton (1970) for which he received the Oscar as best actor, but he refused to accept it after denouncing the Academy Awards as a "meat parade." In 1971 he also refused the Emmy Award as best actor in a TV production of Arthur Miller's The Price. Intense as both an actor and in person, he was particularly known for his portrayal of "angry men," but he has also done both comic and warm-hearted characters. He directed two movies, Rage (1972) and The Savage is Loose (1974), and occasionally returned to the theater to take on stage roles.