Colleen Rose Dewhurst was a renowned Canadian-American actress, born on June 3, 1924, in Montreal, Quebec. She was the only child of Ferdinand Augustus "Fred" Dewhurst, a hockey and football player, and Frances Marie (nee Woods),a homemaker and Christian Science practitioner. Raised in the United States from the age of 13, Dewhurst graduated from Riverside High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and then enrolled at Milwaukee's Downer College for Young Ladies.
She began her stage career in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where she met and married fellow acting student James Vickery in 1947. Dewhurst played Julia Cavendish in "The Royal Family" while a student at Carnegie Lyceum in 1946. She made her professional debut at the ANTA in New York with a small dancing role in Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" in 1952.
Dewhurst's career spanned over four decades, during which she appeared in numerous productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in film and television. She won two Tony Awards and was nominated for several others, as well as receiving numerous Obie Awards and other accolades. Her signature O'Neill role was that of Irish-American Josie Hogan in "The Moon for the Misbegotten," which she played on Broadway in 1973 and won the Tony Award for Best Actress.
Dewhurst was married twice, first to James Vickery and then to George C. Scott, with whom she had two children, Alexander Robert Scott and Campbell Scott. She was a devoted mother and was often seen attending her children's performances. Dewhurst was also a devoted Christian Scientist and refused surgery when diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1991.
Dewhurst died on August 22, 1991, at the age of 67, at her home in South Salem, New York. Her ex-husband George C. Scott dedicated a production of "On Borrowed Time" to her memory two months after her death. Both of her sons, Alexander Robert Scott and Campbell Scott, followed in her footsteps and entered the entertainment industry.
