BIOGRAPHY OF STARS

Chronicle (Levin), 15 February 1947, Page 7

BIOGRAPHY OF STARS

A MILD-MANNERED SCREEN ROCC^ Ever since Warner Bros. brought Zachary Scott to ihe screen he has oeen dying in pictures for them. j His first picture was "The Mask of i Dimitrios" and he was a corpse in) t/he first reel. In "Mildred Pierce," in which he co-stars with Joan j Crawford and Jack Carson, he dies . c^gain. It is his just due for the | viilainous parts he plays. (Joan j Crawford received her dues loo — an Academy Award — for her role in , vhis film). No one can get awayl with kissing the heroine's hand one ! moment and making eyes at her | aaughter the next. Scott is a heavy, sleek romantic rogue. In spite of his good looks you can't help but approre when iomeone mows him aown with a bullet. Born in Austin, Texas, in 1914, there was no indicaiion of the iethal swath he would cut through Ihe Hollywood scene a few years | later. "My father, Dr. Z. T. Scott," the actor rccalls, "nurtured ihe fond j hope that I would some day become i a fine surgeon. When I finallyj voiced the intention of becoming an 1 actor, the family gave me its collective blessings and expr^ssed the hope that whatever job I tackled, I should be the best in that particular field. "It was my firm opinion that the only interesting people in history or fiction were blackguards or eccentrics. The idea of immortaiising these people in plays ana' pictures appeal ed to me." Like most "heavies," scott is mild-manner and married. Ee dotes on everything his younc; aaughter, Waverly, does or scys. He has a home on a hiii above the Sunset Strip where he tir.kers and putters like any good law-abiding citizen. Zachary Scott will not always remain a screen blackgiur d, however, for he has a list of legitimate stage credits reaching from hrre to Lhere. The studio is well aware of SUtf PUB ^Uai'BQ. JO ^IS.TOAip Siq high hopes of taking full advantage of them. Meantime his roguery gets him into a lot of - bother in w arners' "Danger Signal" and "Her Kind of Man." "S'.allion Road" also castars him with Ronald Reagan.