Lizabeth Scott: Film Noir Actress & Elvis Presley Leading Lady

Lizabeth Scott: Film noir actress

Lizabeth Scott dead at 92: Film noir star of the ’40s and ’50s & Elvis Presley leading lady

Lizabeth Scott, a Paramount star in the 1940s usually cast as film noir heroines, died of congestive heart failure on Jan. 31, 2015, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Scott, born (as Emma Matzo) on Sept. 29, 1922, was 92. (See also: Lizabeth Scott photo.)

Among the two dozen film featuring Lizabeth Scott – whose hair-style and husky line delivery were clearly inspired by Paramount’s own Veronica Lake (along with Warner Bros.’ Lauren Bacall) – were the following:

• John Farrow’s You Came Along (1945), with Robert Cummings.
• Lewis Milestone’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), with Barbara Stanwyck, Van Heflin, and Kirk Douglas.
• Desert Fury (1947), with Burt Lancaster.
• Dead Reckoning (1947), with Humphrey Bogart.
• Pitfall (1948), with Dick Powell.
• Dark City (1950), with Charlton Heston.
• The Racket (1951), with Robert Ryan and Robert Mitchum.
• The Company She Keeps (1951), with Jane Greer.
• Bad for Each Other (1954), also with Charlton Heston.

A couple of uncharacteristic Lizabeth Scott movies:

• Scared Stiff (1953), a remake of the Bob Hope-Paulette Goddard suspense-comedy The Ghost Breakers (1940), co-starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (and with Betty Hutton in a cameo).
• The Elvis Presley star vehicle Loving You (1957), also featuring Wendell Corey.

Also of note, Lizabeth Scott was involved in a scandal when Confidential magazine, the 1950s precursor of today’s tabloid rags, published a front-page story in its September 1954 issue. The magazine asserted that Scott was a lesbian whose name was found in “the little black books kept by Hollywood prostitutes.”

Scott sued Confidential, but lost due to a technicality.

Lizabeth Scott never married. Her last movie was the 1972 film noir spoof Pulp, with Michael Caine and Mickey Rooney.

This Lizabeth Scott obit is being revised / expanded.

Source for the Lizabeth Scott’s death notice: Los Angeles Times.