Happy Birthday Lizabeth Scott

Lizabeth Scott was known for her sultry manner, husky voice, and icy beauty - all of which made her one of the leading anti-heroines of the American film noir era. Still, like many of the shady ladies she played, her life concealed a considerable secret...

Originally a model, from a young age she was determined to be a stage actress, yet was discovered by Hollywood just as Broadway beckoned; rather than treading the boards, she chose instead to go West at the urging of the powerful producer Hal Wallis, where soon she was engaged (mainly by Paramount) in a string of bad girl roles, the best of which were opposite Humphrey Bogart.

Offscreen, she became notorious as one of the first actors to sue the gossip magazine Confidential for openly speculating as to why she seemed to have no boyfriends. Following the suit (which was thrown out on a technicality) her career went into decline, although this can just as easily be ascribed to typecasting or to the decline of the genre in which she'd been typecast as it could be to her potential lesbianism.

Nevertheless, aside from a role in 1972, the dozen years of her career in movies had wrapped up by 1957, although she did make appearances on television after that. In latter years, though, she has been a recluse, refusing all requests to be interviewed, no matter how much I've begged*.

*Only kidding; I wouldn't have the stones to approach Willard Scott, let alone Lizabeth Scott. Feh!
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