LOS ANGELES -- George C. Scott, whose eagle profile and gravel-voiced, commanding air brought life to Gen. George S. Patton and earned him an Oscar he refused to accept, has died. He was 71.
Scott died Wednesday at his home in Westlake Village, about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, said Pat Mahoney, the wife of Scott's publicist. She said she didn't know the cause of death."They just found him and are trying to find out what happened," she said Thursday. "He was on again, off again for awhile. He just expired."
The answering service for the Ventura County coroner's office confirmed Scott had died but had no other information.
Scott captivated audiences in roles ranging from the dangerously explosive, yet sympathetic Patton in 1970 to the fatuous blowhard Gen. Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic "Dr. Strangelove."
The two were opposite ends of a spectrum of memorable film characters: the shark on the sidelines who tries to devour Paul Newman in "The Hustler"; the high-powered ringer brought in to steamroller small-town lawyer James Stewart in "Anatomy of a Murder"; the dedicated doctor ground down by red tape and institutional incompetence in "The Hospital."
For all his success in motion pictures, Scott disdained moviemaking, saying it was tedious and he did it only for the money.
"I have to work in the theater to stay sane," he said. "You can attack the stage fresh every night."
In private life, Scott was for years a bellicose drinker whose profile was marked by a nose broken five times, in four barroom brawls and one mugging. He was married five times -- twice to actress Colleen Dewhurst.
Scott was born in Wise, Va., on Oct. 18, 1927, but grew up in Detroit. He joined the Marines in 1945, too late for action in World War II, and spent his four years in the service burying the dead at Arlington by day and boozing at night.
"You can't look at that many widows in veils and hear that many 'Taps' without taking to drink," he said.
He left journalism school in 1950 without a degree and threw himself into acting, spending seven years performing more than 100 roles with stock companies in Toledo, Ohio; Washington and Ontario, Canada.
His breakthrough came when he was 30 years old and caught the eye of Joseph Papp, impresario of the New York Shakespeare Festival.
In rapid succession, Scott played the title role in "Richard III" in November 1957, Jacques in "As You Like It" in January 1958 and a poisoning peer in the off-Broadway "Children of Darkness" in March 1958.
His film debut came in 1959, as a charismatic loony who stirs up a lynch mob against Gary Cooper in "The Hanging Tree." The same year, "Anatomy of a Murder" brought his first Academy Award nomination. He said nothing about it. When he was nominated again in 1962 for "The Hustler" he wired the academy "no thanks." The academy did not withdraw his name, but he didn't win.
The academy also ignored his withdrawal again in 1970 and gave Scott the best-actor Oscar, to go along with Golden Globe and New York Film Critics honors, for "Patton." As the film collected seven Academy Awards, Scott spent the evening watching hockey.