Lizabeth Scott (1922-)

The ultimate femme fatale.

�The privilege of being a screen actor is having the opportunity of seeing yourself as others see you. Believe me, it is very traumatic. When I saw myself, I thought, Get a train ticket and leave.�

With Burt Lancaster in I Walk Alone (1948).

�I don�t want to be classed as a �personality.� Something to stare at. I want to have my talents respected, not only by the public, but by myself.�

Technicolor brilliance in Desert Fury (1948).

�There�s no point putting your heart and soul into a part when you know in advance it isn�t worth the trouble. I�m not speaking as a dedicated actress. Enthusiasm and hard work are requisites for any job a person undertakes. I tried working just for money once and it made me almost physically ill.�

With Humphrey Bogart in Dead Reckoning (1947)

[On Bogart] �He didn�t take acting �seriously� at all. I remember after we had worked together for a week or so, he said to me, �You know, some days I come in here and I feel so ridiculous, so stupid. Being an actor is crap.� Really, I felt that he disparaged, somewhere in his subconscious, being an actor when he was in front of the cameras.� (1974 interview with Robert Porfirio)

Lobby card for Dark City (1950).

�By the time I did Pitfall, I realized when you do your best work, you really have to save it for when the camera�s rolling, so I learned to love the camera. I adore the camera. I don�t mean I used to yearn for a close-up or anything. I mean I adored it most when a close-up came because I could make love to the camera, and even though my character might need a pair of eyes and a human being to relate to, I never tried to hold back as an actress.� (1974 interview with Robert Porfirio)

Happy new year, indeed.

�Maybe there was a script or two when I was borrowed that I might not have believed in totally. But by the time I started a film, I believed in it totally, because, before I�d start any film, I�d make a psychological makeup of my character. And once I had that in hand, I knew her motivation. If there was no motivation in the script for what she did, I always psychologically made one up so that my path could be clear as an actress, and as that character in that film.� (1996 interview with Carole Langer)

My favorite Lizabeth Scott films: The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), Dead Reckoning (1947), Desert Fury (1948), I Walk Alone (1948), Pitfall (1948), Too Late for Tears (1949), Dark City (1950), Two of a Kind (1951), The Racket (1951), Bad for Each Other (1953), Pulp (1972)