Lizabeth Virginia Scott (born September 29, 1922) is an American film actress, known for her deep voice and smoky sensual looks. After performing the Sabina role in the first Broadway and Boston stage productions of The Skin of Our Teeth, she emerged internationally in such film noirs as The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck, Dead Reckoning (1947) with Humphrey Bogart, Desert Fury (1948) with John Hodiak, and Too Late for Tears (1949) with Don DeFore. No other actress has appeared in more film noir. Of her 22 feature films, she was leading lady in all but one. In addition to stage and radio, she appeared on television from the late 1940s to early 1970s.
Dead Reckoning, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Too Late for Tears, Pitfall, I Walk Alone, Desert Fury, Loving You, The Racket, You Came Along, Dark City, Scared Stiff, Bad for Each Other, Silver Lode, The Company She Keeps, Stolen Face, Easy Living, Red Mountain, Two of a Kind, The Weapon, Variet...
Star Sign
Libra
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Quote
1
There's no point putting your heart and soul into a part when you know in advance it isn't worth the trouble. I'm not speaking as a dedicated actress. Enthusiasm and hard work are requisites for any job a person undertakes. I tried working just for money once and it made me almost physically ill.
2
When you say ambition to me - that's when you get me started! My greatest ambition is to be the whoppingest best actress in Hollywood. You can't blame a girl for trying! I don't want to be classed as a 'personality'. Something to stare at. I want to have my talents respected, not only by the public but by myself.
3
I'm tired of that smart New York set who blast Hollywood, calling it an intellectual void. Plenty of silly things are done here, but Hollywood isn't so very screwball. They do fine things in the theatre and splendid things out here too. Baddies crop up on both coasts. I dislike it when critics sell Hollywood short.
4
The privilege of being a screen actor is having the opportunity of seeing yourself as others see you. Believe me, it is very traumatic. When I saw myself, I thought 'Get a train ticket and leave'.
5
[on touring, pre-Hollywood, with 'Hellzapoppin'] It was really hellzapoppin all the time. For a year and a half we traveled from coast to coast. During one stretch we made sixty-four one-night stands in succession. It got so we weren't conscious of what town we were playing in. Just sixty-four days of haze. We were congenial and jolly except when we were dead for lack of sleep. But in such close intimacy there was no privacy. My dream then, my joy now, is to be alone - to lock my apartment door and not even answer the phone.
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Fact
1
In 1957, the sensuous star released an album of torch songs and romantic ballads titled "Lizabeth".
2
In the 1948 film "Pitfall" - she performed in the role of a fashion model that a married man and insurance investigator, starring actor Dick Powell, could not resist. And in the 1949 film "Too Late for Tears," also starring Dan Duryea, Scott killed not one but two husbands. The film advertising poster for that movie proclaims, "She got what she wanted ... with lies ... with kisses ... with murder!".
3
Lizabeth Scott, who played an aloof and alluring femme fatale in such film noir classics as "I Walk Alone," "Pitfall" and "Dark City" died at the age of 92. Scott, who also starred as a gangster's wife opposite Humphrey Bogart in "Dead Reckoning" (1947), died January 31, 2015, of congestive heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, her friend Mary Goodstein told the Los Angeles Times. Scott, a sultry blonde with a smoky voice in the mold of Lauren Bacall, played nightclub singers in 1947's "I Walk Alone" opposite Burt Lancaster and in William Dieterle's "Dark City," a 1950 release that marked Charlton Heston's first major Hollywood role. Scott displayed a rarely seen comic touch when she appeared opposite Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in the 1953 film "Scared Stiff," and she played a press agent who discovers a young country singer, performed by Elvis Presley, in 1957's "Loving You".
4
Born Emma Matzo in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Scott, who was of Russian Heritage, attended the Alvienne School of Drama in New York City. She worked as a model for Harper's Bazaar and in 1942 landed a role as the understudy for Tallulah Bankhead in Thornton Wilder's Broadway production of "The Skin of Our Teeth" - though the tempestuous Bankhead, who did not get along with Scott, stubbornly never missed a performance. A bit later, with backing from producer Hal Wallis, Scott was signed to a contract at Paramount Pictures. She made her film debut in "You Came Along" (1945) opposite Robert Cummings - Ayn Rand was a co-writer of the screenplay - followed by "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck, Kirk Douglas and Van Heflin. Her other films included "Desert Fury" (1947) with John Hodiak, "Easy Living" (1949), "Paid in Full" (1950), "The Company She Keeps" (1951) - as an ex-convict - "The Racket" (1951) with Robert Mitchum, "Stolen Face" (1952), "Bad for Each Other" (1953) and "The Weapon" (1956).
5
Asked in a 1996 interview why film noir had become so popular, Scott said: "The films that I had seen growing up were always, 'Boy meets girl, boy ends up marrying girl, and together, they go off into the sunset' - and suddenly in the 1940s, psychology was taking a grasp on society in America. That's when 'they' got into these psychological, emotional things that people feel. That was the feeling of film noir. ... It was a new realm, something very exiting, because you were coming closer and closer to reality".
6
Upon her death, she was cremated and her ashes were given to her longtime friend, Mary Goodstein.
7
During the 1940s, her image was used in magazine adverts for Royal Crown Cola.
8
Out of all the films she appeared in she considered her favorite film to have been You Came Along (1945).
9
From the 1970s until her death, she had been engaged in real estate development and volunteer work for various charities, such as Project HOPE and the Ancient Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
10
Campaigned for Ronald Reagan three times during his political career.
Early in her career critics claimed she was imitating Tullulah Bankhead and Lauren Bacall.
13
Was a model for the Walter Thornton Agency.
14
Her 21st birthday party at New York's Stork Club was hosted by Hollywood reporter and press agent, Irving Hoffman.
15
Her sultry looks won her modelling assignments as a teenager and she was understudy to Tallulah Bankhead before coming to the attention of Paramount Studios who put her under contract.
performer: "I DON'T WANT TO WALK WITHOUT YOU", "A LETTER FROM A LADY IN LOVE", "THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC", "I WISH I DIDN'T LOVE YOU SO", "IF I DIDN'T HAVE YOU" - uncredited
I Walk Alone
1948
performer: "Don't Call It Love"
Dead Reckoning
1947
performer: "Either It's Love or It Isn't"
You Came Along
1945
performer: " You Came Along from Out of Nowhere" - uncredited
Thanks
Title
Year
Status
Character
Mansfield 66/67
2017
Documentary in memory of / thanks post-production
Hit So Hard
2011
Documentary thanks
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration
2001
TV Special documentary
Herself
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
1999
TV Movie documentary
The Mike Douglas Show
1971
TV Series
Herself / Herself - Actress
The Movie Game
1970
TV Series
Herself
The Celebrity Game
1964
TV Series
Herself
Stump the Stars
1963
TV Series
Herself - Guest Panelist
The Juke Box Jury
1958-1959
TV Series
Herself
The Big Record
1958
TV Series
Herself
I've Got a Secret
1952
TV Series
Herself - Guest
The Colgate Comedy Hour
1952
TV Series
Herself - Actress
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
The 88th Annual Academy Awards
2016
TV Special
Herself (Memorial Tribute)
22nd Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards
2016
TV Special
Herself - In Memoriam
Empire State Building Murders
2008
TV Movie
Lisa
The Definitive Elvis: The Hollywood Years - Part I: 1956-1961
2002
Video documentary
Herself
A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies
1995
TV Movie documentary
Rose Evans, 'Silver Lode' (uncredited)
The World of Hammer
1994
TV Series documentary
Alice Brent
Presley
1987
TV Mini-Series documentary
Glenda Markle
After the Fox
1966
Actress in Tony Powell Movie (uncredited)
Won Awards
Year
Award
Ceremony
Nomination
Movie
1960
Star on the Walk of Fame
Walk of Fame
Motion Picture
On 8 February 1960. At 1624 Vine Street.
Known for movies
The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) as Antonia 'Toni' Marachek
$1.5 Million
