Table Of ContentZachary Scott
Hollywood Legends Series
Ronald L. Davis, General Editor
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Zachary Scott
Hollywood’s Sophisticated Cad
Ronald L. Davis
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI • JACKSON
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association
of American University Presses.
Copyright © 2006 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First edition 2006
(cid:2)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davis, Ronald L.
Zachary Scott : Hollywood’s sophisticated cad / Ronald L. Davis. —
1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-57806-837-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Scott, Zachary, 1914–1965. 2. Motion picture actors and
actresses—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PN2287.S3425D38 2006
791.43(cid:3)028(cid:3)092—dc22 2005014819
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
CONTENTS
Preface vii
Introduction 3
Chapter 1. Born into Wealth and Privilege 8
Chapter 2. Early College and England 27
Chapter 3. Marriage, Graduation, and Summer Stock 50
Chapter 4. Broadway and First Films 69
Chapter 5. Warner Bros. Contract Player 95
Chapter 6. Changing Partners and Directions 133
Chapter 7. Gentleman Actor 166
Chapter 8. Early Death 192
Bibliographical Essay 203
Filmography 221
Index 225
For Donna, John, Mary, and Max,
friends worth emulating
PREFACE
As a freshman at the University of Texas in Austin, I learned that actor
Zachary Scott was a native and favorite son of the city. On one of my intro-
ductory tours, my uncle pointed out to me where the actor’s parents lived.
Movie fan that I am, I frequently drove my parents and friends by the
stately Scott residence when they visited me during my college years, little
anticipating that I would one day become a film biographer. To celebrate
my retirement from Southern Methodist University after forty years of
teaching American cultural history, my surrogate son and I made a train
trip with a group of University of Texas alumni to the Grand Tetons,
Yellowstone, Glacier National Park, and through Montana to Seattle.
Rather unexpectedly my collegiate spirit as a former UT Longhorn was
rejuvenated by the happy experience, and I found myself longing to
reestablish myself on the Austin campus. Meanwhile I had heard that the
Zachary Scott papers had recently been deposited in the university’s
Humanities Research Center, and the thought of writing a biography of the
Texas actor, a fellow Longhorn it turned out, appealed to me.
Fortunately the Scott papers proved to be a treasure trove, and I spent
many hours in the HRC doing the kind of research I had come to love. Since
I own a cabin in nearby Wimberley, Texas, frequent trips to Austin were more
pleasure than hardship, and the Scott research gave me an excuse to reac-
quaint myself with the city—no longer the overgrown country town I had
come to know as a college freshman. A Wimberley artist whose work I
admire put me in touch with Ann Swenson, a long-time neighbor of the
Scotts. Ann not only gave me my first personal glimpses of the former Warner
Bros. star, but also pointed me in the direction of the actor’s sister, Mary Lewis
vii
viii PREFACE
Scott Kleberg. Mary Lewis’s recollections of her family were warm and added
flesh to what I had been reading in the boxes of Scott letters at the HRC. She
also gave me addresses for Waverly Scott Kaffaga, the actor’s daughter, Ruth
Ford, the actor’s second wife, and Shelley Scott, Ruth’s daughter, whom
Zachary adopted. Tom Campbell, Scott’s nephew, I discovered in Wimberley.
Waverly and I had three telephone conversations from her home in
Athens, Greece, and she agreed to see me when she visited Austin in the
fall of 2002. When I contacted the actor’s daughter shortly after her arrival
in Texas, she apologized and said that she had decided not to talk to me.
“There are reasons,” she said. I expressed disappointment but accepted her
decision as final. I liked Waverly immensely from our phone conversations
and found her refreshingly open. I also sensed that she liked me. After
declining my request for an interview, toward the end of our telephone
conversation in Austin, Waverly remarked almost as a postscript, “Well,
we could get together for a drink or dinner.” A few evenings later we met
in a Mexican restaurant in south Austin.
“I’ve checked you out,” Waverly announced once our drinks had
been served. “Oh!” I said with surprise, “and what did you find?” She took
a sip from her margarita and said, “You’re not a scandalmonger.” I nodded
and responded, “Well, I couldn’t ask for a better report than that.” Then,
thinking out loud, I said, “And how did you go about checking me out?”
Waverly smiled as she replied, “I had John’s agent make some inquiries.”
Suddenly I was flattered beyond belief, since John was John Steinbeck,
Waverly’s stepfather and one of my favorite American authors.
Perplexed about how to relax and enjoy drinks and a meal with my
research subject’s daughter without appearing to interrogate her, I tried to
keep the conversation as light as possible. Waverly’s comments about her
father were terse yet consistently insightful. After finishing her margarita
she switched to beer, saying as she pushed the empty glass aside, “I’m not
having any more of those. I’m afraid of you.” She didn’t appear afraid, and
we had a thoroughly delightful dinner, although it was clear that she did-
n’t want to go into depth about her memories of her father.
PREFACE ix
Ruth Ford did not answer my letters. The one I sent to Shelley was
returned, marked addressee unknown. In Los Angeles I was able to talk with
actresses Janis Paige, Virginia Mayo, and Carol Bruce, director Vincent
Sherman, actor Norman Lloyd, and producer Walter Seltzer and his wife,
Mickey, all of whom had known Zachary Scott either professionally or
socially. Eli Wallach in New York I talked to by telephone. Several of the oral
histories I had conducted through the years as director of the SMU Oral
History Project contained information on the Texas actor, and I reviewed
those transcripts in the university’s DeGolyer Library. The Margaret Herrick
Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the film and
television archives of the Doheny Library at the University of Southern
California, the Warner Bros. Archives in Los Angeles, the Columbia
University Oral History Collection, the Billy Rose Theater Collection at the
New York Public Library, the Austin History Center, the Center for American
History at the University of Texas, and the library of Austin High School all
rendered valuable information on the actor’s life and career. The early med-
ical practice of Dr. Scott, the actor’s father, was documented in the Bosque
County Collection in Meridian, Texas. In each case I received generous assis-
tance from an eager staff at those depositories, and I thank them all.
More personal gratitude must be expressed to the curators of the
Humanities Research Center at UT for their guidance over weeks of research.
Barbara Hall at the Herrick Library in Beverly Hills, Ned Comstock at USC, and
Haden Guest at the Warner Bros. Archives were particularly helpful. Seetha
Srinivasan at the University Press of Mississippi is a dream editor, and her
coworkers are as gracious as Seetha herself. Judy Bland has been my patient
now-and-then secretary for many years, and I delight in recognizing her role
in completing this book. Among my immediate friends, I wish to acknowl-
edge the encouragement given by Santiago Nambo, Pat Gurley, Danny
Reynolds, Jane Elder, Luis Martin, Dana and John Pickett, Robert Nott, Diana
Serra Cary, Steve Simonson, and the four pals to whom this book is dedicated.
Ronald L. Davis
