Randolph Scott
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George Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 – March 2, 1987), generally known as Randolph Scott, was an American film actor whose career spanned the sound era from the late 1920s to the early 1960s. He reached the height of his popularity in the 1940s and 1950s, appearing in such films as Gung Ho! and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm; but he was especially famous for his numerous Westerns including Virginia City (1940) with Errol Flynn and Humphrey Bogart, Western Union (1941) with Robert Young, Seven Men from Now (1956) with Lee Marvin, The Tall T (1957) with Richard Boone, Shoot-Out at Medicine Bend (1957) with James Garner, and Ride the High Country (1962) with Joel McCrea (a coin was flipped to see whether Scott or McCrea would receive top billing, and Scott won despite having a slightly smaller role). His long fistfight with John Wayne in The Spoilers (1942) was frequently cited by critics and the press as the most thrilling ever filmed; they were fighting over Marlene Dietrich. As in the case with Joel McCrea in Ride the High Country, Randolph Scott was billed over John Wayne despite having a smaller part due to the fact that Scott was a bigger name than Wayne at the time. Dietrich, Scott and Wayne made another smash hit film together that same year called Pittsburgh, with Scott again billed over Wayne while playing a smaller role.
Of Scott's performance in Western Union, Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote, "Randolph Scott, who is getting to look and act more and more like William S. Hart, herein shapes one of the truest and most appreciable characters of his career as the party's scout." 1 Prior to becoming a Western star he attended Woodberry Forest School and Georgia Tech. The Virginia-born actor was a veteran of World War I and, by the end of his life, a religious person who was close to Rev. Billy Graham.
Scott married twice. The first time, in 1936, he became the second husband of heiress Marion Du Pont, daughter of William Du Pont, Sr. and great-granddaughter of Éleuthère Irénée Du Pont de Nemours, the founder of the E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. The marriage ended in divorce three years later. In 1944, Scott remarried to Patricia Stillman with whom he had two children. The marriage lasted 43 years until Scott's death in 1987.
Scott's high stature as a Western actor was spoofed in Mel Brooks' 1974 comedy Blazing Saddles; after a group of townspeople refuses a request, the sheriff replies, "You'd do it for Randolph Scott." The people immediately take off their hats and whisper, "Randolph Scott!" A chorus singing "Randolph Scott" is then heard. Brooks may have been inspired to include Scott in Blazing Saddles by The Statler Brothers’ song "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?", a top country music song from 1973.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Randolph Scott has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6243 Hollywood Blvd. In 1975, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Randolph Scott died at age 89 in Beverly Hills, California, and is interred in the Elmwood Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.
See also: Other notable figures in Western films
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1 The New York Times, February 7, 1941.
