Martha Ellen Scott (September 22, 1912 – May 28, 2003) was an American actress. She was featured in major films like Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), and William Wyler's Ben-Hur (1959). She was best known for originating the role of Emily Webb in Thornton Wilder's Our Town on Broadway in 1938 and later recreating the role in the 1940 film version for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Biography

Martha Scott was twice-married. First to radio producer and announcer Carleton William Alsop from 1940 to 1946, and then to jazz pianist and composer Mel Powell from 1946 until his death in 1998. She had one child with Alsop, son Carleton Scott Alsop, and two daughters—Mary Powell Harpel and Kathleen Powell—with her second husband. According to son Scott his mother never forgot about her childhood hometown, using the mental image of a Jamesport cemetery in preparation for her Oscar-nominated role in Our Town. Said Alsop "She told me she used that place as her image because it's so serene and beautiful" and that her deceased McKinley and Scott relatives "became the Gibbs and the Webbs in the play." Martha Scott died on May 28, 2003 in California. Per her last wishes she was interred next to her husband, Mel Powell, in the Masonic Cemetery in her native Jamesport, Missouri.

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