george c scott yacht

George C. Scott’s brush with death in Morro Bay aboard the M.V. Mojo

One of the most iconic images associated with  Morro Bay , California is a photo of Hollywood star, George C. Scott’s chartered yacht, the 84’ long M.V. Mojo, being smashed by a monster wave as it attempted to leave the harbor during a turbulent winter storm, January 28, 1978.

Ignoring harbor patrol and U.S. Coast Guard’s warnings not to attempt leaving Morro Bay, Scott commanded his skipper to head on out. The result was a brush with death at the legendary Morro Bay Harbor mouth.

Today, the luxury yacht  M.V. Mojo  operates out of Newport Beach, California as a luxury charter yacht, and it’s played a supporting role in numerous television shows and movies.

LISTEN TO THE NPR PODCAST with Morro Bay Harbor Patrol and skipper of M.V. Mojo today

The Tragic Death Of George C. Scott

Legendary actor George C. Scott , known for his rough, raspy voice and striking presence, struggled in his final years. By 1991, Scott had survived three heart attacks, according to the Orlando Sentinel . He also suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure (via Irish Times ). But he didn't let these health challenges slow him down. Scott made one of his final film appearances in 1993's "Malice" with Nicole Kidman, Alec Baldwin, and Bill Pullman. But his health took another hit in 1996 when he had an aneurysm while in New York that was "never properly treated" (via The New York Times ).

Despite being unwell, Scott pressed on with his work. He returned to the Broadway stage in the 1996 revival of "Inherit the Wind." This drama drew inspiration from the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, which basically put Charles Darwin's theory of evolution up for trial by jury. Scott fell ill during rehearsals and the play's opening had to be delayed, according to The New York Times. Still, Scott earned numerous accolades for his portrayal of defense lawyer Henry Drummond, including a Tony Award nomination (via Internet Broadway Database ).

Sudden loss of George C. Scott

Scott joined an all-star cast, which included Jack Lemmon, Ossie Davis, and Hume Cronyn, for the TV movie remake of "12 Angry Men" in 1997. He played one of the 12 jurors in this courtroom drama. For his last project, Scott brought to a favorite play, "Inherit the Wind," to the small screen. But this time he played the prosecutor, not the defense attorney. Instead Jack Lemmon took the role of Henry Drummond. By the time this production aired in 1999, Scott only had a few months to live.

On September 22, 1999, Scott died at the age of 71 of "a rupture of a major blood vessel in his abdomen," according to Variety . The body of the man who had made his mark on Hollywood with such films as "Patton" and "Dr. Strangelove" was discovered by a friend in Scott's Westlake Village, California home. Despite his declining health, his sudden passing came as a shock. "It was unexpected," Scott's publicist, Jim Mahoney, told the Baltimore Sun . Scott was survived by his fourth wife Trish Van Devere and five children, including actor Campbell Scott. Perhaps in keeping with Scott's disdain for honors, he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles. After all, Scott made history in 1971 as the first man to decline an Academy Award (via E Online ).

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George C. Scott, remembered

Despite his stony demeanor and rocky personal history, Oscar-winning George C. Scott was Hollywood's quintessential diamond in the rough.

He’ll be remembered for becoming Gen. George S. Patton Jr., which he acknowledged as ”a once in a lifetime part.” But in an acting career that spanned nearly a half century, George C. Scott — who died of a ruptured aneurysm Sept. 22, at 71 — gave many remarkable performances, charged by his gruff bark, his steely physical presence, and the irresistible force with which he commanded a scene. All this from a man who once said he’d turned to acting because he was too shy to be a journalist.

Born Oct. 18, 1927, in Wise, Va., Scott went from high school to the Marines, only later enrolling at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. While there, he auditioned for a campus production. ”The minute I got on stage,” he’d later say, ”I knew that this was what I had to do.”

After years of regional theater, Scott caught his break, winning the title role in Joseph Papp’s New York production of Richard III . Rave reviews led to other stage work and to his film debut in 1957’s The Hanging Tree . Movie stardom came two years later with his second film, Otto Preminger’s Anatomy of a Murder , which brought him an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor. It was the first of four career nominations. He won once — a Best Actor award for Patton .

He famously refused to accept the statuette, dismissing the Oscars as ”offensive, barbarous, and innately corrupt.” Despite the ensuing outrage in Hollywood, Scott was nominated the following year, for The Hospital . ”I don’t think he ever looked down on the awards as much as was written,” says that movie’s director, Arthur Hiller. ”He just didn’t want to be part of any competition. He wanted to be the best character actor, but nobody should know who he was.”

After The Hospital , the quality of Scott’s roles became inconsistent, with some good ( Movie Movie , Hardcore ) and some awful ( Rage , The Savage Is Loose , both of which he directed). Increasingly, he found better parts back on Broadway, where he received a 1996 Tony nomination for Inherit the Wind , and in television, where he won an Emmy for the 1997 remake of 12 Angry Men .

Married five times (twice to actress Colleen Dewhurst) and father of six children, including actor Campbell Scott, the boozing and brawling Scott was reputedly a hard guy to live with, but he was perhaps hardest on himself. ”It’s never been difficult to subjugate myself to a part because I don’t like myself too well,” he once said. ”Acting was, in every sense, my means of survival.”

It also served as his ticket to movie immortality. The high points:

ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959) As an arrogant big-city prosecutor, Scott slugs it out in the courtroom with Jimmy Stewart’s folksy small-town lawyer. A-

THE HUSTLER (1961) Scott, who won his second Oscar nomination, is slickly cutthroat as the gambler bankrolling his way into the soul of Paul Newman’s cocky pool shooter. A

DR. STRANGELOVE (1964) Among the mad warmongers in Stanley Kubrick’s savage comedy, the bull-goose loony is Scott’s Gen. Buck Turgidson, getting more gleefully gung ho the faster his country hurtles toward nuclear apocalypse. A

PATTON (1970) The actor’s pinnacle, not just for the fire and fury he invests in the larger-than-life modern warrior, but also for the insight he brings to the deeply flawed man behind the legend. A

THE HOSPITAL (1971) In this pitch-black satire of modern medicine, Scott is the beleaguered head doctor, emotionally careening from alcoholic numbness to volcanic rage to suicidal despair — sometimes in a single scene. B+

Journeys of Discovery: Aboard John Wayne's yacht

Correspondent Tom Wilmer visits with Captain Bert Minshall aboard the "Wild Goose," a yacht formerly owned by John Wayne, berthed at Hornblower Cruises in Newport Beach Harbor in California.

Minshall signed aboard Wayne’s yacht in 1963 as a deck hand and first mate, before taking the helm as skipper in 1976 until Wayne’s death in 1979. Join Minshall as he recounts some of his favorite memories of his sixteen years serving aboard the "Wild Goose."

John Wayne was a 20 th Century Hollywood icon performing in more than 150 movies, with the 1969 film "True Grit" earning him an Oscar for best actor. Wayne’s first love was the United States Navy, but when he did not receive an appointment to the Naval Academy, he carried on with his film career.

His love of the maritime world spurred Wayne to purchase a converted World War II minesweeper (YMS-328), the "Wild Goose" in 1962. The 136-foot-long yacht served as a favorite getaway vessel for Wayne to spend time with his kids and friends. Mexico and Canada were two favored nautical destinations, but he also transited the Atlantic aboard the "Wild Goose" not long after purchasing the vessel. Hollywood celebrities who spent time aboard the yacht include Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Lee Marvin, and Tom Jones.

Hornblower Cruises, in partnership with the John Wayne Cancer Foundation , is hosting a series of Friday night dinner cruises aboard the "Wild Goose" in May and early June, 2019.

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Morro Bay Harbor Mouth vs. George C. Scott's Boat

To go along with the commentary here ..

TRISH VAN DEVERE CHOOSES A DIFFERENT PORT IN THE STORM

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‘It was a terrible mistake,” Trish Van Devere recalled. “We (she and husband George C. Scott) went on a world cruise on the QE2 and at the end, neither of us was speaking to the other. Out of 19 ports we called at, George would get off at only two--and at one of them we had such a terrible row that I wouldn’t come back on board.”

The 12-year marriage between Van Devere and Scott has often been tempestuous. But it was not until they embarked on this ill-fated cruise that they decided to separate for a while.

“And you know what that terrible row was about?” said Van Devere the other afternoon. “Baboons. Whether we should get out of the car or stay in it while trying to photograph them. It’s ridiculous what you can fight about when you set your mind to it.”

At that point, they had actually lived together for 14 years and Van Devere felt in need of a break. So, taking her two horses, she moved to Los Angeles, leaving Scott in their large estate in Greenwich, Conn.

“In the years we were together we’d been lovers, business partners and we worked together constantly,” she said. “And it got to be too much. We found ourselves withdrawing into our own worlds. So, I moved here. And I have to say that it was a wonderful time for me. I’d never lived alone before in my life (Scott is her second husband). I found I enjoyed it. And a year later, when George and I did get back together again, we were much more relaxed about it.”

But they still remain a continent apart. She lives in Beverly Hills with a 130-pound mastiff, Guinevere, for company; Scott remains in Connecticut. But, when he was recently in Yugoslavia, making “Mussolini” for NBC, she visited him twice.

“I enjoyed that,” she said. “It was romantic, again. That had tended to suffer when we were never apart.”

Having worked together so much (10 projects, including the films “The Day of the Dolphin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Movie Movie,”) they have now decided that enough is enough.

“I was beginning to feel overshadowed by George,” she said, “so now I’m just doing things on my own.” (She recently completed a Western spoof, “Uphill All the Way.”)

And what does Scott think of this new turn of events?

“He calls me the strangest lady he’s ever met,” Van Devere said, with a laugh.

NO OFFENSE: Wendy Hughes, the talented Australian actress who can now be seen in Paul Cox’s highly praised film, “My First Wife” (a winner of three Australian academy awards), was in Los Angeles the other day on her way home to Sydney.

Did she get any offers to stay while she was here?

“I’d like to come here,” she said over breakfast, “because there’s great prestige involved in working here. But I won’t come just to hang around. I don’t need to.”

That she doesn’t. In the last six months she has made three Australian films--and has another one lined up.

And it’s doubtful, anyway, whether Hollywood could come up with better roles than the ones she’s tackled in Australia--”Lonely Hearts,” “Careful, He Might Hear You” (for which she won the best-actress award of the Australian Film Institute) and now “My First Wife.”

“I’ve really been lucky with my Australian films,” she said. “Fortunately, the industry there is picking up again after its recent slump; now we’re making between 15 and 20 films a year, and some are very good. We’re even making some big-budget ones--Mel Gibson just finished ‘Mad Max III,’ which cost $25 million.”

But given the right offer, she would come to Hollywood?

“Like a shot,” she said.

WALK ON: When Kate O’Toole appeared in “The Hostage” at the Irish Arts Center in New York the other night, the role of the secret policeman in the drama was played by an unbilled stranger who walked on stage without rehearsal, delivered his lines and then walked off.

It was Kate’s father, Peter O’Toole, who had dropped by to watch her and, knowing the play from his Dublin theater days, decided to surprise her.

QUOTE--FROM GLENDA JACKSON: “I actually admire people who can do things like ‘Dallas’ and ‘Dynasty.’ How they suspend belief for so long is to me quite extraordinary. I know it sounds snide, but I actually mean that. I would die of boredom.”

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Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat vs. big wave

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Trivia. George C. Scotts Boat MOJO Accident

• Thread starter Texasmark
• Start date Sep 17, 2006

Supreme Mariner

• Sep 17, 2006

Some time ago someone showed us a pic of what was said to be George and wife exiting the Columbia river in NW USA into the Pacific in the MV MOJO. This huge (normal for that area with what I hear) wave smacked them and pitched the bow up at about a 45 degree angle......this is a 65 ft boat!!!! Someone was right behind them and snapped a pic of the incident. Awesome shot! Wanted to show it to my son today and couldn't find it. Anyone know where it is? Thanks, Mark  

Re: Trivia. George C. Scotts Boat MOJO Accident I've got a copy. I forgot who posted it, but I found the website and downloaded it. I can send you a copy if you post your email addy. I am traveling and may not see this site for a couple of days. I just sent a copy to SBN. Maybe he can send it to you if you post your email addy here. I noted which thread for him to look at . . . Oh, and she was coming out of Monterey . . .  

Vice Admiral

Re: Trivia. George C. Scotts Boat MOJO Accident Here is a couple of links to the pic. http://www.mv-dreamer.com/Mojo.htm http://capehornyacht&shipbrokers.yachtshare.com/  

• Sep 18, 2006

Re: Trivia. George C. Scotts Boat MOJO Accident Thanks QC, Looks like Reel fixed me up. That's it Reel, thanks a bunch......awesome experience I'm sure for them. :'( Was surfing the other day and ran across some Gulf Coast pics (before and after) Katrina posted on the Sun Herald Newspaper site. You'd think you were looking at a war zone; course battling a storm of that size is a war; just not using bombs and bullets. We spent 4 years of our lives down there in the service and after the storm housed and cared for 3 families (from Biloxi-Gulfport-D'Iberville whom we knew from the experience) for a short while. Amazing what the wave action did to the bridges (causeways), Highway 90, and the Broadwater Beach Marina. Course, I think the Hwy 90 thing was a blessing. That thing was worn out back in '65. They sure did a nice job of fixing it up. The asphalt should be much more driveable and I like not having the curbs. Also, interesting how all the trees (that were left) were bare. Just like a tornado going through; cleans all the leaves off. Later, Mark  

Re: Trivia. George C. Scotts Boat MOJO Accident Cool. That's where I found it too. Couldn't find the site last night . . . Update #2: Morro Bay, not Monterrey . . .  

• Sep 19, 2006

Re: Trivia. George C. Scotts Boat MOJO Accident FWIW, big waves like that are not uncommon on the west coast. Especially above the Channel Islands. (Catalina, Santa Cruz etc. ). Definitely not converging currents like the Columbia R. Just big old mofos that cross the Pacific. Hit a big one on a Rock Cod party boat (70 footer) exiting Oxnard Harbor once. Nothing like the one that hit the Mojo, but you could hear the whole boat of 50+ people take a deep breath. Up and over, no issues, but still pretty exciting. There are two mega wave surfing meccas, North - Mavericks and South - Cortes Bank. Check out this Photographers setup and shooting from a 246 World Cat (fix the dot): www dot boats.com/boat-articles/Watersports-152/Shooting+at+the+Bank/12871.html  

Re: Trivia. George C. Scotts Boat MOJO Accident Dang!! I'll bet that tipped over a couple martini glasses.  

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The 50+ Best George C. Scott Movies

Vote for your favorite movies and TV shows, regardless of critic reviews or how big the role was.

List of the best George C. Scott movies and shows, ranked best to worst with movie trailers when available. George C. Scott's highest-grossing movies and shows have received a lot of accolades over the years, earning millions upon millions around the world. The order of these top George C. Scott movies and shows will be decided by how many votes they receive, so only highly rated George C. Scott movies and shows will be at the top of the list. George C. Scott has been in a lot of films and TV shows, so people often debate each other over what the greatest George C. Scott movie or show of all time is. If you and a friend are arguing about this then use this list of the most entertaining George C. Scott films and shows to end the squabble once and for all.

If you think the best George C. Scott role isn't at the top, then upvote it so it has the chance to become number one. The greatest George C. Scott performances didn't necessarily come from the best movies or shows, but in most cases they go hand in hand.

List films include The New Centurions, Rage and many more.

"This list answers the questions, "What are the best George C. Scott movies or TV show?" and "What are the greatest George C. Scott roles of all time?"

Notable directors that worked with George C. Scott include names like Stanley Kubrick , Sidney Lumet and Otto Preminger . If George C. Scott movies are your thing, then check out the greatest movies by Rod Steiger and Lee Remick too.

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Marinascope

The 10-foot-high by six-foot-wide refurbished shipping lane buoy that is the frame of “Marinascope” was initially used in the construction of the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge that was dedicated a dozen years ago. Scott rescued the derelict, pockmarked its exterior with portholes of varying size, and then powder coated it inside and out so as to withstand the elements. The holes were then filled with fused glass panels created by local residents.

The walk-through “Marinascope,” is a larger-than-life kaleidoscope that reflects both history and the colors of nearby Puget Sound. And, to reflect the ever-changing nature of the waterfront, is a work-in-progress as Scott plans to add new features over time.

And as of May 11, it is the latest addition to the community’s Art on Poverty Bay project and is now the central focus of Des Moines’ South Marina Park at the South 227th Street entrance to the Des Moines Marina.

The sculpture was envisioned in 2015 as a collaboration between community organizations, including the Des Moines Waterfront Farmers Market, to tell the story of the environmental, nautical and economic history of Des Moines Waterfront.

The project, commissioned by the Des Moines Legacy Foundation, was made possible with funding from the Port of Seattle ACE Grant, the City of Des Moines, the Des Moines Marina and Parks, Recreation and Senior Services Department, and the support of the Des Moines Historical Society, the Waterland Blog and from student and community member artists.

Many of those who had a hand in the project were on hand were in attendance at the ceremony May 11 when the community paid homage to two former Des Moines Legacy Foundation board members Nancy Stephan and the late Carmen Scott (no relation to the artist).

She said it has been Stephan’s years-long passion to make Des Moines a place for great art. As an arts commissioner, including a stint as chairman, Stephan researched how to create a temporary outdoor sculpture garden, based on other highly successful projects in communities such as Puyallup.

Stephan established a process for jurying and selecting the art and proposing locations for the plinths for the highest viability and economic impact. She then began fundraising for the project. The Art on Poverty Bay outdoor sculpture project was born in 2013 and is now in its fourth sculpture rotation.

Every two years, the temporary sculptures that have not been acquired by the Legacy Foundation or City are rotated out of the collection.

Thorell mused that the sculpture project only came into existence because Stephan is “an inspirational leader for the arts in Des Moines, who is not afraid to ask for money.”

As for the late Carmen Scott, representatives of the Legacy Foundation and the Waterfront Farmers Market began discussions with George C. Scott five years ago to create a public artwork as a tribute to Carmen Scott’s dedicated service to the community. She died Nov. 28, 2014.

Thorell described the former City councilwoman’s love of the City’s historic Beach Park and waterfront on the Puget Sound that is the inspiration for the “Marinascope” sculpture.

Carmen Scott worked tirelessly to protect the city’s historic Beach Park and promoted the listing of the historic district on the State and National Historic Places registers. She was a community historian and a professional photographer, and her photos of Des Moines are published in tourism magazines and on websites regionally. She was also a tireless promoter of the community, Thorell said.

She was also known for her meticulousness.

Her son, David Bonathan, joked that even as the dedication ceremony was underway, she would have been fussing over the placement of each glass panel.

As the ceremony was wrapping up, former Senior Services Manager for Des Moines Sue Padden glanced skyward through misty eyes and assured bystanders that “Carmen’s here.”

Courtesy of The Waterland Blog