Editing Adrian Scott

{{short description|American film producer (1911–1972)}}
{{about|the American screenwriter}}
{{Other people|Robert Scott}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2013}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Adrian Scott
| image        =
| caption      =
| birth_name   = Robert Adrian Scott
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|1911|2|6}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi |title=California Death Records |accessdate=2012-01-04 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120101054826/http://vitals.rootsweb.ancestry.com/ca/death/search.cgi |archivedate=January 1, 2012 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
| birth_place  = [[Arlington, New Jersey]]
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1972|12|25|1911|2|6}}
| death_place  = [[Sherman Oaks, California]]
| death_cause  = 
| spouse       = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Anne Shirley (actress)|Anne Shirley]]|1945|1948|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|[[Joan LaCour Scott]]<br>|1955}}
}}
| occupation   = Screenwriter, film producer
| relatives      = [[Allan Scott (American screenwriter)|Allan Scott]] (brother)<br />[[Pippa Scott]] (niece)
}}
'''Robert Adrian Scott''' (February 6, 1911 – December 25, 1972) was an American screenwriter and film producer. He was one of the [[Hollywood Ten]] and later blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses.

==Life and career==
===Early life===
Scott was born in [[Arlington, New Jersey]], the son of successful Irish Catholic parents — his father worked in middle management for the New York Telephone Company. Arlington was one of the centers of the American textile industry, a key site in the history of industrial capitalism and a hotbed of radical labor agitation. Arlington is 12 miles south of Paterson, where the 1913 strike of 25,000 silk workers brought together socialists, [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobblies]], and Greenwich Village intellectuals. In 1926, when Scott was 15, 20,000 textile workers in nearby Passaic, New Jersey, closed down the mills.

Scott's older brother [[Allan Scott (American screenwriter)|Allan]] was a playwright (and later screenwriter), whose comedy ''Goodbye Again'' ran on Broadway for most of 1933.

Adrian's college yearbook in [[Amherst College]] described him: "Hat cocked back at a rakish angle, cigar in the corner of his mouth, his fingers playing nimbly over the typewriter keys, the inimitable R.A.L. Scott."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg-e.org/langdon/print/chapter1.pdf|title=Reel Reds, Real Americans : Politics and Culture in the Studio System|website=Gutenberg-e.org|accessdate=1 November 2017}}</ref>
Scott graduated from Amherst in 1934. He was a film critic and associate editor of ''Stage'' magazine from 1936 through 1938.  He moved to Hollywood, California, in 1939.

===Screenwriter===
Scott broke into Hollywood as a screenwriter. He worked on the script for ''[[Keeping Company]]'' (1940) at [[MGM]], ''[[We Go Fast]]'' (1941) at [[20th Century Fox]], and ''[[The Parson of Panamint (1941 film)|The Parson of Panamint]]'' (1941) at [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]]. Scott wrote ''[[Mr. Lucky (film)|Mr. Lucky]]'' (1943) at [[RKO]], which was a hit.

===Producer===
RKO signed Scott to work as a producer. His first credit in that capacity was ''[[My Pal Wolf]]'' (1944). He went on to produce ''[[Murder, My Sweet]]'' (1944), an adaptation of ''[[Farewell My Lovely]]'' by [[Raymond Chandler]] by [[John Paxton]] that was directed by [[Edward Dmytryk]]. It was a critical and commercial success. The cast included [[Dick Powell]], who revitalized his career in the role of [[Philip Marlowe]], and [[Anne Shirley (actress)|Anne Shirley]], whom Scott married.
,
Scott, Dmytryk, Powell, and Paxton reunited on ''[[Cornered (1945 film)|Cornered]]'' (1945). Scott then produced ''[[Deadline at Dawn]]'' (1946), the only feature film directed by [[Harold Clurman]].  Dmytryk, Paxton, and he reunited on ''[[So Well Remembered]]'' (1947) shot in England. More successful was ''[[Crossfire (film)|Crossfire]]'' (1947), another collaboration among the three men. ''Crossfire'' was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Picture]] and was a popular success.<ref name="uni">Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'', University of California, 2016</ref>

Scott produced ''[[The Boy with Green Hair]]'' (1948), directed by [[Joseph Losey]], which was a box-office flop.<ref name="scott">Scott Eyman, ''Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer'', Robson, 2005 p 420</ref> He is credited on the script for ''[[Miss Susie Slagle's]]'' (1946) at Paramount.

===Blacklisting===
Scott joined the [[Communist Party USA]] in 1944.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hopwood|first1=John C.|title=IMDB Mini Biography|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0778789/bio|website=IMDB|accessdate=4 March 2015}}</ref> In October 1947, Scott was called to testify during the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]  hearings on Hollywood, but as did nine others, refused to testify. RKO fired him on October 29, 1947, for refusing to answer questions.

For the first year of the blacklist, he returned to journalism, contributing to the London journal ''Cine-Technician''. He was sentenced to prison along with the other members of the [[Hollywood Ten]]. Edward Dmytryk, another of the Hollywood Ten, chose to become a 'friendly' witness and testified before the HUAC in 1951 that Scott pressured him to put communist propaganda in his films.

In 1955, Scott published an essay titled "Blacklist: The Liberal's Straightjacket and Its Effect on Content" in ''Hollywood Review''.

From 1954 to 1961, Scott made a living writing for television.<ref>Bernard F. Dick, Radical Innocence: A Critical Study of the Hollywood Ten (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1989): 133.</ref> These shows included ''[[The Adventures of Robin Hood (TV series)|The Adventures of Robin Hood]]'' and ''[[The Adventures of Sir Lancelot]]''.<ref>{{cite news 
 |first = Tom Dewe
 |last = Matthews
 |title = The outlaws
 |url = http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,1888594,00.html
 |format = free registration required
 |work = [[The Guardian]]
 |date = October 7, 2006
 |accessdate = October 11, 2006
}}</ref> He provided the story for ''[[Conspiracy of Hearts]]'' (1960) under a pseudonym.
He moved to England in 1961.

In 1963, [[MGM-British]] hired Scott as a production executive, effectively ending his blacklisting.

===Later career===
Scott attempted to make a return to feature-film production in 1967 by producing a new adaptation of ''[[Monsieur Lecoq]]'';<ref name=uppava>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xSmWVsDh8WEC&q=adrian+scott+Monsieur+Lecoq&pg=PA158|title=Famous Movie Detectives III|first=Michael R.|last=Pitts|date=November 1, 2017|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810836907|accessdate=November 1, 2017|via=Google Books}}</ref> the film was never finished.<ref name=uppava /> Film stills featuring the movie's actress [[Julie Newmar]] were featured in the September 1969 edition of ''[[Playboy]]''.

Shortly before his death, Scott made a television adaptation of ''[[The Great Man's Whiskers]]'' and was credited with his legal name.

==Personal life==
Scott was married to actress [[Anne Shirley (actress)|Anne Shirley]], who subsequently married another screenwriter, [[Charles Lederer]], nephew of [[Marion Davies]]. He later married [[Joan LaCour Scott|Joan Scott]] (née LaCour), fellow screenwriter and producer. Joan sometimes served as Adrian's front when he was unable to publish under his own name, and later the surname LaCour was used by both when writing in Hollywood.

Adrian was the brother of screenwriter [[Allan Scott (American screenwriter)|Allan Scott]], who is the father of actress [[Pippa Scott]].
Adrian Scott died from [[lung cancer]] in 1972 in [[Sherman Oaks, California]].

==Papers==

Joan and Adrian Scott's papers can be found at the American Heritage Center in Laramie, Wyoming.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0778789}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090617053505/http://digital.uwyo.edu/webarchive/scott/default.htm the Adrian Scott Archive]
*[https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv744274 Adrian and Joan Scott Papers] at the [[American Heritage Center]]
*[https://ahcwyo.org/2013/05/31/the-adrian-scott-papers-a-look-at-the-hollywood-ten-and-mccarthyism/ Adrian Scott Papers: A Look at the Hollywood Ten and McCarthyism] at [https://ahcwyo.org/ AHC blogs]

{{Hollywood Ten}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scott, Adrian}}
[[Category:1911 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:American film producers]]
[[Category:American male screenwriters]]
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer in California]]
[[Category:Hollywood Ten]]
[[Category:Members of the Communist Party USA]]
[[Category:People from Kearny, New Jersey]]
[[Category:20th-century American businesspeople]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American screenwriters]]
[[Category:Writers from Hudson County, New Jersey]]