Jacqueline Scott(1931-2020)

Red-haired Jacqueline Sue Scott began her career in show biz as a three-year-old by winning a tap-dancing contest. Though she once self-deprecatingly described herself as "the worst child tap dancer ever to haunt an audience" she made the successful transition from juvenile performer in tent shows to accomplished leading and character actress with an impressive number of screen credits to her resume.

The daughter of John D. Scott and Maxine Finley, Jackie was born in the small town of Sikeston, Missouri. She began acting professionally from the age of 17 with a small St. Louis community theatre company. She then moved to New York, graduated from New York's Hunter College, did some admin work for David Sarnoff at RCA and eventually studied acting under Uta Hagen. Her breakthrough came when she was chosen by the distinguished thespian Louis Calhern to play the part of his granddaughter in The Wooden Dish on Broadway. Mentored by Calhern (who undoubtedly taught her many tricks of the trade) Jackie was cast that same year opposite Paul Muni in Inherit the Wind, playing a young lass in love with the hapless teacher at the center of the infamous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial.

On the strength of some early television work in live anthology drama, Jacqueline was brought to Hollywood by William Castle, well-known as a producer of gimmicky low-budget horror movies. Her debut big screen appearance was to be in Macabre (1958), a picture shot in just seven days for a reputed investment of around $90,000. No audience members 'died of fright', nor were any of the $1000 life insurance policies handed out to audiences as part of the publicity campaign cashed in. While certainly no critical masterpiece, the enterprise managed to gross a cool $5 million. More importantly for Jacqueline was meeting on the set of Macabre her future husband (screenwriter and photographer Gene Lesser who also became her agent). Their marriage lasted an impressive (especially by Hollywood standards) 62 years.

Jacqueline's prolific output during the succeeding three decades consisted primarily of TV guest spots. Very much 'a working actress, she could always be counted upon to portray strength and give quietly effective performances, even in relatively passive roles like those many sympathetic wives and girlfriends in assorted Quinn Martin productions of the 60s and 70s. Among her better-known roles were Donna Kimble Taft, sister of David Janssen's man-on-the-run in five installments of The Fugitive (1963), the wife of an astronaut stranded in an alternate universe in The Parallel (1963) and the chimpanzee physician Dr. Kira (Roddy McDowall's friend) in Planet of the Apes (1974) (for which she had to undergo a three-hour make-up session). She later quipped in an interview: "When some of the crew said how pretty I looked, I knew they had been on the show too long!"

In films, Jacqueline was also frequently cast as supportive spouses: Walter Matthau's in Charley Varrick (1973) (her own personal favorite), Dennis Weaver's in Steven Spielberg's directorial debut picture Duel (1971) and James Stewart's in the western Firecreek (1968). A sturdier outdoorsy part came her way via the monster flick Empire of the Ants (1977) in which she found herself pitted against giant killer insects, along with co-stars Robert Lansing and (a less glamorous than usual) Joan Collins. Jackie's frequent forays into the Wild West included repeat appearances in Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Laramie (1959), Bonanza (1959) and Gunsmoke (1955).