George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American stage and film actor, director, and producer. He was best known for his stage work, as well as his portrayal of General George S. Patton in the film Patton, as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and as Ebenezer Scrooge in Clive Donner's 1984 film A Christmas Carol. He was the first actor to refuse the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Patton in 1970), having warned the Academy beforehand that he would refuse it on philosophical grounds.

Biography

Scott was married five times:


Carolyn Hughes (1951–1955) (one daughter, Victoria, born December 19, 1952)
Patricia Reed (1955–1960) (two children: Matthew – born May 27, 1957, and actress Devon Scott – born November 29, 1958).
The Canadian-born actress Colleen Dewhurst (1960–1965), by whom he had two sons, writer Alexander Scott (born August 1960), and actor Campbell Scott (born July 19, 1961). Dewhurst nicknamed her husband "G.C."
He remarried Colleen Dewhurst on July 4, 1967, but they divorced for a second time on February 2, 1972.
American actress Trish Van Devere on September 4, 1972, with whom he starred in several films, including the supernatural thriller The Changeling (1980). Scott adopted Trish's nephew, George D. Scott and resided in Malibu. They remained married until his death in 1999.
He had a daughter, Michelle (born August 21, 1954) with Karen Truesdell.

While he was divorced from Colleen Dewhurst, he developed a stormy relationship with actress Ava Gardner fueling their bouts with alcohol; continuing an age-old problem dating back to his military service.

Best films