Born in Wise, Virginia George C. Scott was raised and educated near Detroit, enlisting in the marines after high school, serving from 1945 to 1949. Following his military service he enrolled at the University of Missouri where he graduated in 1953 with degrees in English and Theatre. He supported himself by working unskilled jobs, and picked up work as an extra in television and theatre productions. By 1957 he was ready to give up on his dream of an acting career, and was working as an IBM machine operator when he was cast in the title role of a production of Shakespeare's Richard III, for which he received high praise. He made his film debut in the 1959 western The Hanging Tree, and was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor for his second film role, that of an unctuous assistant prosecutor in Anatomy of a Murder.
George C. Scott died at the age of 71 of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.
