Job Film, television and stage actress
Years active 1940-1990
Top Roles Eleanor 'Ellie' Hilliard, Yochabel, Catherine Elizabeth Allen, Jane Peyton, Emily Webb
Top GenresDrama, Romance, War, Historical, Western, Comedy
Top TopicsBook-Based, Romance (Drama), Religious
Top Collaborators (Director), (Director), ,
Shares birthday with Paul Muni, John Houseman, Erich von Stroheim  see more..

Martha Scott Overview:

Legendary character actress, Martha Scott, was born Martha Ellen Scott on Sep 22, 1912 in Jamesport, MO. Scott died at the age of 90 on May 28, 2003 in Van Nuys, CA and was laid to rest in Jamesport Masonic Cemetery in Jamesport, Daviess County, MO.

MINI BIO:

Appealing strawberry blonde American actress who always seemed to be required to age in her films: ironically, her youthful looks faded fast and she had a very short star career, although she continued to crop up through the years in mother roles. She received an Oscar nomination for Our Town.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Film Stars).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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Although Scott was nominated for one Oscar, she never won a competitive Academy Award.

Academy Awards

YearAwardFilm nameRoleResult
1940Best ActressOur Town (1940)Emily WebbNominated
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She was honored with one star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of Live Performance.

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Martha Scott Quotes:

[Christ passes, bearing the cross]
Esther: How can this be?
Judah Ben-Hur: [shocked] I *know* this man!
[Jesus stumbles and is whipped by the centurions]
Miriam: [pleading] Won't someone help him?
[Jesus is whipped again]
Tirzah: Have pity on him!
Miriam: [wonderingly] In his pain... there's a look of peace.
Judah Ben-Hur: Watch over them, Esther.
[he goes after Jesus]
Miriam: We must go back.
Esther: [sadly] I brought you here to this... when I hoped...
Miriam: [looking after Christ] You haven't failed, Esther.


Moses: Will you swear in the name of your god that you are not my mother?
Yochabel: We do not even know His name.
Moses: Then look into my eyes and tell me you are not my mother.
Yochabel: [shaking her head] Oh, Moses, Moses. I can not. I can not.
[Yochabel, then heavily wept, on Moses' arms]


Bithiah: Moses, do not enter! There is only sorrow here.
Moses: Are you comforting it, Mother? I followed you here to find this woman Yocha... You were the woman who was caught between the stones.
Yochabel: Until you come.
Bithiah: My son, if you love me, you will...
Moses: I love you, Mother, but am I your son? Or yours?
Yochabel: No, you are not my son. If you believe that men and women are cattle to be driven under the lash, if you can bow before idols of stone and golden images of beasts, you are not my son.


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Martha Scott Facts
She was the second actress cast in the Broadway role of "Emily Webb" after the actress initially cast was dropped by producer/director Jed Harris for not making the difficult transition in character after Emily dies in childbirth. The role made Martha a theatre star. Ironically, when she took her part to film, the last act was rewritten to include a happier ending wherein Emily does not die. It was a huge misjudgment on the part of the producers and for this almost sacrilegious flaw, the film version, Our Town (1940), is not considered the classic it should be, even though it is beautifully rendered and interpreted in every other way.

She had previously played Charlton Heston's wife in a rather less celebrated period drama, a play called "Design for a Stained-Glass Window". She was hired for Ben-Hur (1959), at Heston's suggestion, when the original actress was sacked. A couple of years later a similar situation occurred when Heston was due to appear in the play "The Tumbler". The actress hired to play his wife was sacked and Heston again suggested Scott. "I could vouch for her absolutely, both as actress and pro," he said in his memoirs.

Son Carlton Scott Alsop was born in February, 1942.

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