‘Gunsmoke’ Star Jacqueline Scott Dies at 89

Actress Jacqueline Scott, best known for Gunsmoke and The Fugitive, died at her home in Los Angeles on July 23 after a battle with lung cancer, her son told The Hollywood Reporter. She was 89 years old.

Scott is survived by her son, Andrew, and granddaughters Valerie and Arianna. The star met her husband, Gene Lesser, a TV writer and press agent, on the set of the 1958 film Macabre. He died on June 23 of natural causes when he was 94 years old, THR wrote.

According to her profile on the Internet Movie Database, Scott was also widely known for appearing in Charley Varrick, Plant of the Apes, and The Twilight Zone. Her last role was in the 2009 film Sugar Boxx.

Scott Knew She Wanted To Be An Entertained Since She Was 3 Years Old

Scott, a native of Missouri, got into the entertainment world at an early age after winning a tap-dancing contest when she was 3 years old, her biography on IMDb reads. She self-deprecatingly joked about being a horrible dancer, and later went on to become a leading actress, starring opposite some of Hollywood’s most famous leading men. She moved to New York in the 1950s and appeared in the Broadway Inherit the Wind from 1955 to 1957. She got her big break the following year when she starred opposite William Castle in Macabre.

Throughout her career Scott played a range of characters–and that was on purpose. “I wanted to play all different characters. And I got to do that,” she told Classic Film & TV Cafe in 2016. “Once I’d be the good girl and once I’d be the bad girl. … One director, Leo Penn — who is Sean Penn’s father — would call me for anything. We had worked together when we were kids in New York, and he was fabulous.”

Penn supported Scott, even when others didn’t think she’d be able to pull off a new part. “Leo would say, ‘Well, it’s the last minute and I don’t have time to mess around meeting actors I don’t know. I want Jacqueline.’ He’d push me for the part — and the producers would be happy he did,” she told the outlet.

Why Scott Liked Doing Television

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFZ0TXG9ix0

Jacqueline Scott – BiographyPlease support ai.pictures, we don’t have ads : https://www.patreon.com/aipictures2017-02-06T05:20:13Z

Aside from playing different characters, another aspect of the entertainment industry Scott enjoyed doing was television. She told Classic Film & TV Cafe she found it “exciting” because there was no room for mistakes.

“On filmed television, you rarely have any rehearsal at all,” she said. “On television, they generally shoot for the weather, not the script. Anything that has to be done outside is done quickly before it rains (laughs). So, it’s shot out of sequence and you have to put your scenes in context as you go along. It’s a challenge. I loved the rehearsals for the live shows.”