Randolph Scott

Actor

Born Randolph Crane Scott on Jan. 23, 1898 in Orange County, VA

Died March 2, 1987 of heart ailment in Bel-Air, Calif.

Randolph Scott is best known as the tall, handsome cowboy of countless Hollywood westerns, an actor whose square-jawed countenance and poker-faced stare became prototypes for the generation of western heroes who followed him.

One of the first actors to form his own production company — during the 1940s when most other stars were under contract to major studios — Scott was thus also one of the first to have a measure of control over what movies he made, and over their box-office profits. A multimillionaire with extensive investments in real estate, he was considered one of Hollywood's wealthiest actors.

Although Scott never won an Oscar, his lanky cowboy heroes — soft-spoken but resolute, quiet but fearless, virile but at heart loners — became so famous that the image of manhood Scott created became, to post-World War II moviegoers, synonymous with the American ideal.

— Penelope McMillan in the Los Angeles Times March 3, 1987