Randolph Scott Net Worth

Randolph Scott's Quotes

• [about Westerns] They have been the mainstay of the industry ever since its beginning. And they have been good to me. Westerns are a type of picture which everybody can see and enjoy. Westerns always make money. And they always increase a star's fan following.
• Frankly, I don't like publicity. I always remember something that David Belasco said and had incorporated in the contracts of his stars. His theory was, "Never let yourself be seen in public unless they pay for it". To me, that makes sense. The most glamorous, the most fascinating star our business ever had was Garbo [Greta Garbo]. Why? Because she kept herself from the public. Each member of the audience had his own idea of what she was really like. But take the other stars of today. There is no mystery about them. The public knows what kind of toothpaste they use, whether they sleep in men's pajamas and every intimate fact of their lives. When I read publicity about them, I can tell just which press agent they employ.
• I had always been a fatalist about my career. What was to be was to be. At least it worked out that way in my case. My retirement is both voluntary and involuntary. One reason, and this is voluntary, is the impact of television. All old movies are turning up on television, and frankly making pictures doesn't interest me anymore. Another reason is that the film industry is in a declining state.
• [on his mother] She was an old-fashioned Southern lady who always contended movies were not here to stay, My five sisters took her to see me in a film and the first time she saw me on the screen, she said, "Oh, no! That can't be Randolph. This feller's older than Randy and not so good-looking".
• [on his short marriage to heiress Marianna du Pont Somerville] Our separation is entirely friendly. It's merely a case of being separated too much, which did not prove compatible with marriage.

Interesting Facts about Randolph Scott

1. From 1932-44 he lived with Cary Grant in a beach house known jocularly as Bachelor Hall. The close friendship between Scott and Grant and the steady stream of women into and out of Bachelor Hall fed rumor mills for years. Many believed that Grant and Scott were lovers, and the women were arranged by the film studios for public effect.
2. Rode a beautiful blond sorrel horse named Stardust in many of his westerns.
3. Best friends were Cary Grant, Fred Astaire, and the Rev. Billy Graham.
4. Interred at Elmwood Cemetery, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, just four blocks from his boyhood home at 312 W. 10th Street.
5. Was the inspiration for the popular 1973 song "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott?," a top-20 country hit for the The Statler Brothers.
6. Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1975.
7. Remained close friends with Cary Grant until the day he died. When he heard of his old friend's death, he reportedly put his head in his hands and wept. He himself would die a little over 2 months afterwards.
8. His image from his Westerns as an upright, outstanding sheriff or cowboy was so strong that it was paid homage to in Mel Brooks' classic comedy Blazing Saddles (1974). When the African-American sheriff asks the reluctant townspeople for their help in fighting the bad guys, they unanimously reject him. However, when he says, "You'd do it for Randolph Scott!", a heavenly chorus in the background sings "Randolph Scott!", and the townspeople change their minds.
9. Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 764-766. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.
10. He was a conservative Republican and one of Hollywood's biggest supporters of Ronald Reagan as governor of California.
11. Due to his shrewd financial investments, he was reportedly worth around $100 million by the end of his life.
12. From 1950-53 he was among Hollywood's Top 10 box-office draws.
13. He was very ill with a weak heart and breathing problems in the final years of his life, and was hospitalized several times with pneumonia.
14. Retired from acting at the age of 64 after the Sam Peckinpah western Ride the High Country (1962), stating that movie acting no longer interested him.
15. Campaigned for Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, and attended the Republican National Convention.
16. During the early 1950s he was a consistent box-office draw. In the annual Motion Picture Herald Top Ten Polls, he ranked tenth in 1950, eighth in 1951 and again tenth in 1952.
17. Scott served in France in World War I with the 2nd Trench Mortar Battalion, 19th Field Artillery.
18. Playing golf with Howard Hughes got him his first movie job as an extra on a silent film with George O'Brien and Lois Moran.
19. He was hired by Victor Fleming to coach Gary Cooper on speaking with a Virginia accent for The Virginian (1929).
20. Lupe Velez claimed in 1932 that she was going to marry Scott but changed her mind. Scott denied this, saying he only saw her once at the Brown Derby.