Scott brought something novel to the screen: an electric wariness. He'd also won an Oscar nomination for a supporting role in his second movie: the slick prosecutor from the city who tries to best folksy lawyer Jimmy Stewart in Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959). When the director, Robert Rossen, cast Scott in 1960, the actor had developed a reputation on the New York stage for his fierce originality. In "The Hustler," he carved out a formidable space in a superb ensemble that included Jackie Gleason as Fats, Paul Newman as Eddie and Piper Laurie as Sarah, Eddie's doomed lover (Bert Gordon's chief victim). He seldom even played losers, as Mel Gussow noted in the New York Times obituary on Friday, two days after Scott's death of a burst abdominal aortic aneurysm at the age of 71. James Bond."īy the time Eddie starts blathering about how great he is, Scott's Gordon has his number.
Bert Gordon," Scott tells him, as smoothly as Sean Connery saying, "Bond. For the next few minutes of the film, Scott hands over money, and watches Fats lose to Fast Eddie the single sign of tension Scott betrays is to breathe deep and rest his forehead on the fingers of one hand.
Scott in "The Hustler," he says three words: "Cash me in." A gambler has interrupted his poker game to tell him that the pool player he backs, Minnesota Fats, is getting walloped down at the pool hall.
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