Randolph Scott born 23 January 1898 (d. 1987)Randolph Scott was an American motion picture 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 even 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 more than 60 were in Westerns.
Tall (6 ft 2 in), 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 tenth in 1950, eighth in 1951, and again tenth in 1952.
Following the making of Ride the High Country (1962), Scott retired from film making at the age of 64. Having made shrewd investments throughout his life, he eventually accumulated a fortune worth a reputed US$100 million.
During his retirement years he became friends with the Reverend Billy Graham. Scott was described by his son Christopher as being a deeply religious man. He was a Freemason and active in the York Rite. He was also an Episcopalian and a member of St Peter's Episcopal Church in Charlotte, NC, where he was buried.
Scott died at age 89 in Beverly Hills, California. He was interred in the Elmwood Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Scott married twice. The first time, in 1936, he became the second husband of heiress Marion Du Pont. Reputedly the couple spent little time together and the marriage ended in divorce three years later.
In 1944, Scott married Patricia Stillman, with whom he adopted two children. The marriage lasted 43 years until Scott's death in 1987.
OK, so the first marriage sounds a little suspicious but what is Western hero Randolph Scott doing on Gay For Today?Although Scott achieved fame as a motion picture actor, he managed to keep a fairly low profile with his private life. Off screen he became good friends with Fred Astaire and Cary Grant. He met Grant on the set of Hot Saturday and shortly afterwards they began rooming together in a beach house in Malibu that became known as 'Bachelor Hall'.
They would live together, on and off, for ten or more years, presumably because they liked each other's company and wanted to save on living expenses (they were both considered notorious tightwads), even if both were successful movie stars.
As Scott shared 'Bachelor Hall' with Cary Grant more than a decade, it was rumored that the two actors were romantically involved, and that the name 'Bachelor Hall' and the reported parade of women there were invented by the studio who wanted to keep their valuable actors away from any public scandal. In his book, Cary Grant: Grant's Secret Sixth Marriage, Marc Eliot claims Grant had a sexual relationship with Scott after they met on the set of Hot Saturday (1932).
In his book, Hollywood Gays, Boze Hadleigh, author of numerous books purporting to reveal the sexual orientation of celebrities, makes various claims for Scott's homosexuality. He cites gay director George Cukor who said about the homosexual relationship between the two: 'Oh, Cary won't talk about it. At most, he'll say they did some wonderful pictures together. But Randolph will admit it – to a friend.'According to William J. Mann's book, Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969, photographer Jerome Zerbe spent 'three gay months' in the movie colony taking many photographs of Grant and Scott, 'attesting to their involvement in the gay scene.' In 1995, Richard Blackwell published his autobiography From Rags to Bitches, where he declared he was lovers to both Cary Grant and Scott.
In 1944, Scott and Grant stopped living together but remained close friends throughout their lives. Both Grant and Scott consistently denied the allegations. Grant always vehemently denied being gay, and many of his friends have concurred over the years. Scott's adopted son, Christopher, also challenged the rumours. Following Scott's death, Christopher wrote a book entitled, Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott, in which he rebuts rumours of his father's alleged homosexuality. Scott's wife and daughter denied the rumours, too, as did many of Scott's close friends. Budd Boetticher, the director most often linked with Scott's work, had this to say about the rumors: 'Bullshit'.Prior to and between his first and second marriages Scott was romantically linked with several prominent film actresses, including Lupe Velez, Sally Blane, Claire Trevor, and Dorothy Lamour.
The question is, I suppose, was Randolph Scott in enough Westerns to realise that there is no smoke without fire?