The Expressions of Gregory Scott (1919) 🇬🇧

Gregory Scott — The aristocratic villain of the British screen.

Gregory Scott, Broadwest star, whose many interesting expressions appear on this page, is English by birth, and is one of the foremost of our British screen players, certainly one of the most talented.

Like many of the other Broadwest artistes, he has been playing for films for many years, and has had a vast amount of experience both on the stage and in the film studio.

“Greg,” as he is affectionately known by his friends in the studio, is one of the most reticent of men one could possibly meet, and is very disinclined to talk about himself. He would far rather talk about the latest race-winner or some other well-known film personality. But in an interview which I had with him recently, he told me that he is the first of a very long line to go in for acting in any shape or form.

Why He Chose the Profession

“Just why I hankered after the bright lights of the stage I cannot imagine,” he confessed. “Perhaps it was on account of the friends of my earlier days. They were all either dentists, musicians, or actors. I couldn’t paint, I couldn’t play any instrument, so I thought I would try my hand at the stage. A bit risky? Certainly, but when one has no leaning towards dentistry, medicine, the law, or any of the wonderful careers hopeful parents have in mind for their sons, one of the arts is sure to claim them, and the stage got me.”

His First Engagement

“I often look back on the fine days when I got my first stage engagement, and how, in the little studio in Chelsea, three other friends and I celebrated the event with a big bottle of wine, and eggs and bacon — which, by the way, we cooked ourselves. It doesn’t sound a very good mixture, does it? But it seemed good in those days. Many are the times I have longed to be back in the little Chelsea Studio where my chum imagined he would paint something that would create the Sensation of the Year in the art world. Unfortunately, however, his hopes were never realised.

On the Stage

“Well, to get back to business, I was certainly lucky, for I obtained a great many theatrical engagements. My first was with a Ben Greet company, which played a series of Shakespearean, Sheridan, and Goldsmith productions at Brighton. I have also played for the late Sir George Alexander, Cyril Maude, and the late Lewis Waller.”

“Then I thought I would give up the stage and direct my attentions solely to films, and I was fortunate enough to play leads in such films as Beauty and the Barge, Lawyer Quince, Duty, The Incomparable Bellairs, Harbour Lights, In the Ranks, The Little Minister, and oh! a host of other films.”

“Soon after the Broadwest Company was formed, I joined their stock company. The Answer was my first picture for them, then followed The Green Orchard, The Black Knight, The House Opposite, in all of which I took the leading part.

“I was then cast for the part of Michael Ayde, the young barrister, in The Ware Case in which Mr. Matheson Lang made his first screen appearance without character make up. The last film before I joined up was The Munition Girl’s Romance.

After the War

“Then followed a long series of parades, route marches, fatigues, and other scenes familiar to the man in khaki. But as soon as the Armistice was signed, back I came to the Broadwest Company.

“As they were not quite ready for me, however, they released me from my contract to play in the Violet Hopson film, The Gentleman Rider.

“Since completing this film, I have played the lead in The Great Coup, another racing film, by the way. But I thoroughly enjoyed these two pictures, partly because they were the first after long, weary months in France, and partly because the plots took us on ‘exterior’ work quite a lot. It was such a treat to get away from the studio on a boiling hot summer’s day and locate either in some quiet spot in a Thames backwater or on the Downs at Epsom.

“I do not think I would forsake the arc lamps of the studio for the footlights of the stage. In fact, so engrossed have I become in film work that I hope to go on and on playing for films until — until —”

And here Greg heard the call boy’s shout and so he left you to imagine what his final word would have been.

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Photo captions:

• Contempt.
• On the alert.
• He can sneer.
• Amused surprise.
• His look of hate.

Collection: The Picture Show Magazine, November 1919