Martha Scott

The Arrival of Emily Webb

Martha Scott arrived in Hollywood with the script for Our Town under her arm and an Oscar nomination already in her pocket. She didn't need the usual years of apprenticing in supporting roles, because Broadway stages had already given her the necessary grit. In 1940 American critics were won over by her performance as Emily Webb.

It was a dazzling debut.

Her career, however, didn't follow the predictable path of the era's great film noir divas. Scott preferred restraint and ended up specializing in roles that carried the moral weight of the story. Her face projected an almost architectural honesty that suited rural dramas or epic films better than tangled comedies.

And the gamble paid off.

The strange case of Charlton Heston's mother

Curiously, in 1956 she played Heston's mother in The Ten Commandments and repeated the same role in 1959 for Ben-Hur. What's striking is that Scott was only eleven years older than the actor. But directors of big Biblical productions were looking for the calm authority she carried effortlessly.

Cecil B. DeMille knew Scott didn't need to shout to dominate a scene. Her technique relied on her gaze and a restraint that contrasted with the scenery-chewing of some of her co-stars. She understood that in the Technicolor of the 1950s, less was more.

Theater was always his safety net.

Producing and a Home on the Stage

In the late 1960s she co-founded the Plumstead Playhouse in New York with Henry Fonda and Robert Anderson. They aimed to revive classic American plays outside the more aggressive commercial circuit. This producing side of her career allowed her to take control of her own destiny when film roles began to dry up with age.

In 1970 she produced the film version of The World of Ray Bradbury. She wasn't chasing mass applause but the quality of the source material. So she balanced this work with constant appearances on the small screen, where she became a familiar face to home audiences.

In 1987 she worked on Murder, She Wrote and kept a steady presence on television throughout that decade. She never officially retired from acting. Her last appearance on screen came in 1990 in an episode of the series Magnum, P.I., where she once again played a maternal figure.

Martha Scott died in Van Nuys on May 21, 2003 of natural causes at the age of ninety-one. She rests in the Jamesport Cemetery in Missouri.