Biography for
Randolph Scott (I) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

23 January 1898, Orange County, Virginia, USA

Date of Death

2 March 1987, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart and lung ailments)

Birth Name

George Randolph Scott

Nickname

Randy

Height

6' 2" (1.88 m)

Mini Biography

Handsome leading man who developed into one of Hollywood's greatest and most popular western stars. Born to George and Lucy Crane Scott during a visit to Virginia, Scott was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. He attended Georgia Institute of Technology but, after being injured playing football, transferred to the University of North Carolina, from which he graduated with a degree in textile engineering and manufacturing. He discovered acting and went to California, where he met Howard Hughes, who obtained an audition for him for Cecil B. DeMille's Dynamite (1929), a role which went instead to Joel McCrea. He was hired to coach Gary Cooper in a Virginia dialect for The Virginian (1929) and played a bit part in the film. Paramount scouts saw him in a play and offered him a contract. He moved rapidly into leading roles at Paramount, although his easy-going charm was not enough to indicate the tremendous success that would come to him later. He was a pleasant figure in comedies, dramas and the occasional adventure, but it was not until he began focusing on westerns in the late 1940s that he reached his greatest stardom. His screen persona altered into that of a stoic, craggy, and uncompromising figure, a tough, hard-bitten man seemingly unconnected to the light comedy lead he had been in the 1930s. He became one of the top box office stars of the 1950s and, in the westerns of Budd Boetticher especially, a critically important figure in the western as an art form. Following a critically acclaimed, less-heroic-than-usual role in one of the classics of the genre, Ride the High Country (1962), Scott retired from films. A multimillionaire as a result of canny investments, Scott spent his remaining years playing golf and avoiding film industry affairs. He died in 1987 survived by his second wife, Patricia, and his two children, Christopher and Sandra. He is buried in Charlotte, North Carolina.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver

Spouse

Patricia Stillman	(3 March 1944 - 2 March 1987) (his death) 2 children
Mariana duPont Somerville	(23 March 1936 - 1939) (divorced)

Trade Mark

Roles in westerns.

Nearly always played the good guy.

Deep voice and unemotional demeanor.

Often cast as a sheriff hunting a group of outlaws.

Trivia

During the '30s, was roommates with Cary Grant in a beach house known jocularly as Bachelor Hall. The close friendship between Scott and Grant and the steady stream of women into and out of Bachelor Hall have fed rumor mills for years.

Rode a beautiful blond sorrel horse named Stardust in many of his westerns.

Best friends were Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, and the Reverend Billy Graham.

Formed Ranown Productions with producer Harry Joe Brown and produced several films.

Interred at Elmwood Cemetery, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, just four blocks from his boyhood home at 312 W. 10th Street.

Was the inspiration for the popular 1973 song "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?," a top-20 country hit for the The Statler Brothers.

Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1975.

Remained close friends with Cary Grant until the day he died. When he heard of his old friend's death, he reportedly put his head in his hands and wept.

His image from his westerns as an upright, outstanding sheriff or cowboy was so strong, it was paid homage to in Mel Brooks's classic comedy Blazing Saddles (1974). When the African-American sheriff chides the reluctant townspeople that they would have helped Randolph Scott, the great western star's name is intoned by a chorus on the soundtrack and the townspeople are won over.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 764-766. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

He was a right-wing Republican and one of Hollywood's biggest supporters of Ronald Reagan as governor of California.

Due to his shrewd financial investments, Scott was reportedly worth around $100 million by the end of his life.

From 1950 to 1953, Scott was among Hollywood's Top 10 box office draws.

He was very ill in the final years of his life, and was hospitalized several times with pneumonia.

Retired from acting at the age of 64 because he knew he could never hope to surpass his performance in the Sam Peckinpah western Ride the High Country (1962).

At the time of his retirement from acting he had been seriously considered for the role played by Chuck Connors in the Doris Day comedy Move Over, Darling (1963). It was to have been a reprise of the role he played in My Favorite Wife (1940).

Campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, and attended the Republican National Convention.

During the early 1950s, Scott was a consistent box-office draw. In the annual Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Polls, he ranked tenth in 1950, eighth in 1951, and again tenth in 1952.

Personal Quotes

They have been the mainstay of the industry ever since its beginning. And they have been good to me. Westerns are a type of picture which everybody can see and enjoy. Westerns always make money. And they always increase a star's fan following.

[in 1962] All the old movies are turning up on television, and frankly, making pictures doesn't interest me too much any more.

Frankly, I don't like publicity. I always remember something that David Belasco said and had incorporated in the contracts of his stars. His theory was, "Never let yourself be seen in public unless they pay for it". To me, that makes sense. The most glamorous, the most fascinating star our business ever had was Garbo [Greta Garbo]. Why? Because she kept herself from the public. Each member of the audience had his own idea of what she was really like. But take the other stars of today. There is no mystery about them. The public knows what kind of toothpaste they use, whether they sleep in men's pajamas and every intimate fact of their lives. When I read publicity about them, I can tell just which press agent they employ.

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