BIOGRAPHY:

American leading man of suave or sinister roles. A collateral relative of George Washington and 'William Barclay 'Bat Masterson, Scott was the son of a wealthy surgeon. Intending to follow his father into medicine, Scott studied at the University of Texas, but found he preferred the theater. He dropped out of college and signed on as a cabin boy on a freighter bound for England. There he found work in provincial repertory, gaining confidence and skill. Returning to Texas, he married actress Elaine Anderson (I) and became active in local theater in Austin. He and his wife were spotted in a play there by Alfred Lunt, who recommended them to the producers of New York's Theatre Guild. Thus, Scott made a successful entry into the Broadway stage, appearing in several successes. In one of them he was noticed by Jack L. Warner, who signed him to a film contract and introduced him to film audiences in the title role of The Mask of Dimitrios (1944). He was well received in the part of the mysterious and debonair scoundrel and seemed destined for a top-level career in movies. Indeed, a subsequent role as the cad in Mildred Pierce (1945) seemed likely to cement him as both a star and as a typecast portrayer of amoral characters. Jean Renoir, however, cast the Texan in a touching and sensitive role in his classic The Southerner (1945). Though he received great acclaim for his performance, Scott was not particularly promoted by Warners, and his subsequent films declined in prestige. In 1950, a divorce and a rafting accident, in which he was badly injured, sent him into a depression. Subsequently, he married actress Ruth Ford and began to concentrate more on stage and television work. Although he continued to work in films, including one for director Luis Bu�uel, Scott never quite reclaimed the level of stardom that was his in the mid-1940s. In 1965, he was stricken with a brain tumor. Despite surgery, he succumbed in October of that year, at 51. He was buried in Austin, Texas.

TRIVIA:

His father was a direct descendant of George Washington's only surviving sister, Betty.
His grandson, David Melville Skinner, was born on January 6, 1957.
He was the son-in-law of Waverly Andrew Anderson, a Texas oil man, during his marriage to his first wife.
He left his royalties to daughter Shelley but requested that she give the money to her mother, his widow, as long as her mother was alive. About three months after he died, Shelley decided to keep the money for herself, leading to her estrangement from her mother.
His nickname for his wife was Ruthless.
His daughter, Waverly Elaine Scott, was born January 24, 1936. Although Hollyood publicists wrote that she had been named after the novel, she was in fact named after her maternal grandfather. If she had been a boy, Scott had planned on naming him Zachary Thomson Scott III.
Known for his various charitable work, especially projects to help the poor and aid American troops.
First wife actress 'Elaine Anderson (I)' (qv) filed for divorce citing mental cruelty in November of 1949, but it was widely suggested she had fallen in love with author 'John Steinbeck' (qv). She and Steinbeck married in December of 1950, only months after the divorce was final.

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