Zachary Scott

I liked his looks - so dark. But he never became a real top-drawer actor, did he? Kind of a B-actor in A-movies (some great ones, to be sure).

Well he made a ton of pictures and died young. Never stopped working.

Look at this suit!

He had BFD for miles.

No one was better at playing an oily cad in 1940s Hollywood. He will always be remembered as the sleazy (and horny) Monte Beragon in Mildred Pierce, in which he beds both Mildred and her daughter Veda.

^^ BDF

I remember thinking he looked very good in “the southerner”

I think he was a genuinely good guy. He was married a couple of times, the second one lasting until his death at the way too early age of 51.

This is a well known story about him:

" he was arrested in a bar in New Orleans, Louisiana, after the actor, his wife, and several friends were seen drinking with two black patrons and charged with violating the state’s segregation laws. At the night court hearing on the incident, Scott testified that he had visited the bar to find a black harmonica player by the name of “Papa” Lightfoot, and had been invited by two black patrons to join them for a drink."

I would imagine he knew full well that he was breaking the law.

They made a point to photograph his long eyelashes, glamor style. Look for studio publicity photos and they all have eyelash detail. I wonder if he had the thing Liz Taylor had - the double row?

Jean Renoir movie

"The Southerner" is a good movie, and he's excellent in it. And very sexy.

he slaps Ann Sheridan when he finds out she has cheated on him in The Unfaithful.

He's not my type, but he was a pretty good actor willing to take chances in unsympathetic roles. He starred in one of Luis Bunuel's two English-language movies, "The Young One" (1960).

Zac had another good part in Danger Signal. After robbing and murdering his married lover and then making her death look like suicide, conniving philanderer Ronnie Mason (Scott) relocates to Los Angeles. Under a new identity and claiming to be a writer, Ronnie finds lodging at the home of Hilda Fenchurch (Faye Emerson) and her mother. He woos Hilda, knowing she has money, but when he discovers that Hilda's sister, Anne (Mona Freeman), has just inherited $25,000, he switches his attentions to her.

His first wife left him for John Steinbeck.

R14 thank you for the link.

Something seems off with him, like maybe his head and neck are too small for his body.

He was 6'5" and his head seems small but is probably normal sized but small in comparison to his size? Many actors are short with large heads.

They must have paid a lot of attention to how he and his co-stars were filmed because I never noticed he was 6¨5. All those times I watch Mildred Pierce for example. Joan was 5ft 4 tops.

In this pic I don't see a foot difference. But now I have looked at others and can see the tricks.

Here, now that I know he is so tall, the height difference is lessoned with Scott so far behind Crawford

I had no idea he was 6’5! He will forever by slimy Monty in MP. He was perfect.

Joan was famous for wearing high heels to look taller. But she mist have had to stand on a box to get face to face with Zac in some scenes.

He's got one of the Joseph Schildkraut noses.

And that Adolphe Menjou moustache doesn't help any.

ZACH Theatre (the Zachary Scott Theatre Center) is a professional theatre company located in Austin, Texas, as well as its associated complex of theatre facilities. The company is the oldest continuously active theatre company in Texas, and one of the ten oldest in the country.

He and his last wife, Ruth Ford, lived at the Dakota.

[quote] Austin, Texas

I guess he was a big fish in a small pond there.

Was he a genuine theater actor?

Always gave off a gay vibe.

i just saw him in the comedy One Last Fling where he mugs and does a lot of slapstick.

R23, Ruth Ford continued to live at the Dakota after Scott died in 1965 and was still living there the night John Lennon was killed in 1980.

He was really rather dishy in “the southerner”

r24, per Wikipedia:

after attending the University of Texas at Austin he dropped out at age 19 and worked as a seaman on an England-bound freighter. There he appeared in almost two dozen repertory theatre productions in 18 months. When he returned to Texas, he began to act in local theater productions.

Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne met Scott and his wife Elaine Anderson in Austin, Texas, where Scott was completing his degree, and then wrote to Lawrence Langer about summer jobs for both at the Westport Playhouse in CT, which led to his engagements in New York. He made his debut in a revival of Ah, Wilderness! in 1941 with a small role as a bartender. Scott was also in The Damask Cheek (1942), The Rock (1943), and Those Endearing Young Charms (1943).

Scott returned to Broadway with Requiem for a Nun (1959) and A Rainy Day in Newark (1963).

R28 he really was, thank you! I think he looks so much better without the mustache.

[quote]the height difference is lessoned

Heavens!

[quote]But she mist have had to stand on a box to get face to face with Zac in some scenes.

Actually, it was Christina.

Hot to death!

Let's not and say we did.

I used to get him confused with Randolph Scott (because of the name) but he's really the poor man's John Payne.

Gay as Christmas. His best friend was Angela Lansbury's first (and very gay) husband.

John Steinbeck was also bi, and the wife left him right after John went into a tailspin when his beloved Ed Ricketts was killed.

All fo them hiding in plain sight.

I want to gossip with r35! Was John Ford bi? Or gay?

[quote]Was John Ford bi? Or gay?

Yes.

Maureen never revealed the name of the male movie star John Ford was kissing when she walked into his office without first knocking.

Many guessed it was Tyrone Power.

R39 maybe Jeffrey Hunter is a candidate too, he seems to have been mentored by Ford and could probably entice many red blooded men.

r39, was it on a movie she was filming with Ford? And the male star was her co-star?

I wondered if it was Van Johnson.

I thought she was visiting the set.

In “sergeant Rutledge” and “the searchers” I feel Ford really captured the gorgeousness of Jeffrey hunter I don’t think power was even captured that well by Ford but I haven’t seen “the long gray line”

I've not read O'Hara's book, but here's an article from when it was released:

Recalling the incident on the set of the 1955 film, "The Long Gray Line," the 83-year-old screen legend writes: "I walked into his office without knocking and could hardly believe my eyes. Ford had his arms around another man and was kissing him. I was shocked and speechless. I quickly dropped the sketches on the floor, then knelt down to pick them up ...

"They were on opposite sides of the room in a flash," she said.

Identifying the man with Ford only as "one of the most famous leading men in the picture business," O'Hara said he later approached her and asked her why she had never mentioned Ford was gay.

"I answered, 'How could I tell you something I knew nothing about?'"

Ok then I change from Jeffrey to Tyrone. Tyrone could be described as one of the most famous men in the business.

[quote]he's really the poor man's John Payne.

I always thought of Scott as a dark Dan Duryea, they played the same kind of sleazy characters.

Wonder if this was before or after. Sounds like the “star” was trying to do damage control after by pretending he had no idea Ford was gay.

He definitely 'sniffed the cookies'! And his fugly wife left him for some pussy-pounding hetero Steinbeck COCK!!!

The late 90s to mid aughts gay pron star with the same same is still escorting in LV.

Maureen O'hara was gaga when she slumped on to her pillows and disrated that memoir.

Gossip without names sells newspapers but cuts no ice with me!

^ She dictated that memoir. She was gaga.

Other than those stills from The Southerner, where he is quite sexy, he really always looks like he's sniffing a factory of 🍪s.

After Zachary Scott's death, his widow Ruth Ford lived with author and ex-male hustler Dotson Rader, who was some 30 years younger than Ford.

His look was really exotic. What ethnicity was he?

Hey my name is Zachary Scott too!

Major gay voice in "Mildred Pierce".

Why would O’Hara out John Ford - but not the man he was kissing?

Unless the man was O’Hara’s best friend Duke Wayne?

Also - Zachary Scott does NOT have BDF - his features are too delicate.

[quote] Why would O’Hara out John Ford - but not the man he was kissing?

Ford's relations are less likely to sue Maureen.

I ended up down a rabbit hole because of this thread. Here’s another link of interest from less than a year ago involving Scott’s daughter (Steinbeck’s step-daughter) Waverly.

By 1955, it would have been an ordeal for any man to kiss John "Pappy" Ford.

He had become quite grizzled, wore an eyepatch and his breath reeked from his constant use of chewing tobacco.

I have no interest in John Ford but this doco by British homosexual Lindsay Anderson may reveal something.

Anderson met Ford first in the mid-50s and again close to his death

Va va va voom!

R7 I found a newspaper report from 19 November 1952

[quote] BEFORE C01RT FOR ATTENDING A NEGRO NIGHT CliUB: EW ORLEANS: Actor Zachary Scott and 'his wife were among five white persons acquitted yesterday on complaints of disturbing the peace by attending a negro night club. Judge Babylon accepted the actor's exPlanation that his party went into the night club at 3 a.m. on Sunday to look for talent. Scott told the Court 'I catch all the acts , in the cities I visit, looking for talent for U.S.O. (armed services) shows. In thIs place I went to hear a harmonica player, and I might say he was- a good one; 'Some coloured boys in the Navy, just 'back from Korea, recognised me and asked our party to have a drink with them. I was unaware of , Louisiana's segregation laws.' Under the city's racial laws, the group was charged with congregating in a place off bounds to white people, mingling with negro patrons and consuming alcoholic, beverages. Scott played the male lead in 'Bell, Book and Candle,' which 'had its first performance here on Saturday night.