Childhood & Early Life
Born to a very high profile New York family on 19th July 1961, Campbell Scott was a privileged kid. His father George C. Scott was an affluent actor, so was his mother, Colleen Dewhurst, who was Canadian. Scott family had six children in total and all of them were raised in New York City. Being an actor’s family, the conversations in the house were related to films and show business most often, and by the time Scott plunged into the world of acting, he knew quite a lot about the inside workings of Hollywood.
Campbell finished his early education from John Jay High School in NYC, and throughout his high school days, he kept dreaming about being an actor. His father although, was a fairly famous personality in the film business but Campbell knew that without talent, he wouldn’t survive and hence, he made up his mind to attend film school once he graduated from High School. He attended Lawrence University and received a major degree in theatre and performing arts and as he graduated in 1983, he made a move to Los Angeles to start his career.
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Career
Although he had already appeared in very low budget indie films during college, his first major experience on a film
set came in 1987, when he got the role of policeman in ‘Five Corners’ and another meaty role came his way three years later in 1990, when he signed the film ‘The Sheltering Sky’. He played the role of George Turner in the film and this role gave him enough confidence to deal with a complicated character in the mini TV series he had to do next, ‘The Kennedys of Massachusetts’ in 1990.
His film career was already reaching heights by the time he got signed on for the socially relevant drama film ‘Longtime Companion’ in 1990, a film which was based around the HIV/Aids epidemic and told the story of a group of American youngsters and their struggles of dealing with the ailment. His performance was appreciated when the film ran into festivals and paired along with his handsome looks, he was being considered as one of the most promising new faces of Hollywood.
In the next year, he got the chance to star alongside Julia Roberts, one of the biggest Hollywood stars, in the film ‘Dying Young’, where Scott played the role of Victor and his performance was so good that he received his first ever major award in form of ‘MTV Movie award for best breakthrough performance in a film’. His next project was the film ‘Singles’, where he was signed with Bridget Fonda and the film continued to provide Scott with a great exposure.
At the very peak of his acting career, in 1996, Campbell wanted to mix things up and decided to direct a film as direction had been his long time dream. Stanley Tucci hired Scott as the co-director for his project ‘Big Night’ and the film when released in 1996, it made waves across the United States and national and international film festivals. Boston Society of Film Critics awarded him with the best new director award, so did the New York Film Critic Circle. The honours didn’t stop there; Sundance Film Festival gave the Grand Jury prize to the film.
Film roles never stopped after that and Scott got extremely busy with the film and TV movie projects, averaging about three films per year. For his outstanding performance in the film ‘Roger Dodger’ in 2002, he received the award for best actor by the National Board of Review. He slowed down on the movies after that, and concentrated on doing good roles only. Around 2009, the American television industry saw a major shift in terms of quality and Scott didn’t waste any time and became a part of it.
In the years 2009 and 2010, he appeared in two major TV shows titled ‘Royal Pains’ and ‘Damages’ and later in 2012, he was seen playing the crucial role of Uncle Ben in the reboot of the Spiderman franchise titled ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ and also appeared in its sequel a couple of years later. Presently, he is a cast member of Netflix’s original drama series ‘House of Cards’, where he has been playing the role of Mark Usher, one of the key characters.
Whenever he finds the time, Scott also indulges in theatres with his mother. She has been actively doing theatres since a long time and the mother-son duo has been seen together in ‘The Queen and the Rebels’, a Broadway. They played mother-son in ‘Ah, Wilderness!’ and ‘Long Day’s Journey into the Night’. Interestingly, the latter one was the Broadway production which launched the acting career of Campbell Scott’s father.
Apart from working in films and TV, his voice narrating career has also flourished and despite his busy schedule with acting, he has done about a dozen audio
books, where he narrates the entire books in his voice. He believes that this is a great way to hone acting skills as it gets him to enter into the skin of different narrators. Some major works of him as a voice actor are ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ by Hemingway and Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’, a horror classic.
Apart from the audio books, Campbell has been using his voice for ad films, documentaries and animation films. He lent his voice for Chevron Corporation television ad and for the highly acclaimed Iraq War documentary ‘No End in Sight’.
Personal Life
Campbell Scott married his long-time girlfriend Anne Scott in July 1991, at the high of his career. The couple loved each other since teenage and they gave birth to their first child in 1998 named Malcolm Scott. But things weren’t smooth for the couple after that, and that led to a bitter divorce in 2002.
For following years, Campbell maintained a single status and wasn’t involved with anyone, but around 2008, he kept making appearances at events with Kathleen McElfresh, an actor and a producer. The couple got married in 2009 and has been together ever since.
Campbell presently resides in his mansion in Connecticut with his wife and two sons.
