Pippa Scott, the veteran actress who starred with John Wayne in the 1956 western The Searchers, has died.
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According to The Hollywood Reporter, she passed away on May 22 at her home in Santa Monica due to congenital heart failure, her daughter Miranda Tollman confirmed.
Scott was 90.
Born on November 10, 1934, in Los Angeles, Scott was the daughter of stage actress Laura Straub and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Allan Scott (So Proudly We Hail!, 1943). She studied at Radcliffe, UCLA, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In 1956, she made her Broadway debut in Jed Harris’ Child of Fortune.
That same year, legendary director John Ford cast her in The Searchers, headlined by John Wayne. She played Lucy Edwards, Wayne’s niece, who is abducted in the film along with her younger sister, Debbie.
She appeared in the six-time Oscar-nominated film Auntie Mame in 1958. Her other film credits include As Young as We Are (1958), My Six Loves (1963), Petulia (1968), Cold Turkey (1971), and The Sound of Murder (1980), per IMDb.
Pippa Scott Starred in a Classic Episode of The Twilight Zone
Pippa is also beloved by The Twilight Zone fans for her appearance in the 1960 episode “The Trouble with Templeton.
December 9, 1960: Twilight Zone's "The Trouble with Templeton" airs. An aging actor gets an unexpected trip to his past — and experiences a surprising reunion with his dead wife.
— The Twilight Zone (@TheNightGallery) December 9, 2024
Stars Brian Aherne, Pippa Scott, and future movie-director Sydney Pollack. pic.twitter.com/E1mCCo5e2Z
She also appeared on television in episodes of shows like The Virginian, Outlaws, Dr. Kildare, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Perry Mason, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, The Waltons, Columbo, and The Streets of San Francisco.
In 1964, she married Lee Rich, the founder of Lorimar Productions, the studio behind TV classics like The Waltons and Dallas. Although they later divorced, they stayed close until his death in 2012.
Later in life, Scott focused on human rights work and founded the International Monitor Institute. This nonprofit collected evidence to help prosecute war crimes in the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides, as well as other crimes against humanity.
Scott also founded Linden Productions to shed light on global injustices, producing projects for organizations like the United Nations and Human Rights Watch. For PBS’ Frontline, she produced “The World’s Most Wanted Man,” an episode about the hunt for Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who was indicted by The Hague’s International Criminal Court.
In 2006, she also produced the documentary King Leopold’s Ghost, which explored King Leopold II of Belgium’s exploitation of the Congo.