VENTURA COUNTY NEWS : Area Neighbors Remember Scott

Actor George C. Scott moved to Westlake Village about a year ago to begin work on his memoirs, according to neighbors.

He rented a small condominium on Lakewood Place near Westlake Lake, but neighbors said they rarely got a glimpse of him, except when he stepped into a limousine or took out the trash.

“Nobody really saw him much,” said neighbor Winifred Traughber, who met the actor once after he moved in. “He kept to himself most of the time, but I wish I’d had the chance to get to know him a bit better.”

During her brief meeting with Scott, Traughber said she found him to be a warm and humorous man.

She dropped by to welcome him to the neighborhood and found Scott with friend and fellow actor Martin Sheen.

“I remember he was sitting in a chair with a blanket wrapped around him,” she recalled. “He was very gracious and funny. He asked me if I recognized [Sheen] and I told him that he looked familiar and they kind of laughed.”

That was the last time she ever spoke to Scott.

He was found dead shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday by a caretaker who checked on him daily.

According to the Ventura County medical examiner’s office, Scott died of natural causes. He was 71.

Although Traughber and other neighbors said the Academy Award-winning actor was an intensely private man, he was kind to neighbors and quick with a greeting.

“He was a nice neighbor. He was very kind and he was very unaffected by his position,” said one neighbor standing outside the actor’s home Wednesday.

Scott, a four-time Academy Award nominee and one-time winner, got a relatively late start in Hollywood.

He didn’t start acting until he was in his 30s and earned acclaim for “Richard III” in the New York Shakespeare Festival.

After that success, he moved on to films and garnered his first Oscar nomination for “Anatomy of A Murder.” Two years later Scott nabbed a second Oscar bid for his role in “The Hustler,” which also starred Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason.

He won an Oscar in 1970 for his portrayal of iconoclastic World War II Gen. George S Patton. Scott, however, refused to accept the award.

According to some of his Westlake Village neighbors, Scott appeared to be in frail health, which is why some suspected he was rarely seen.

“He looked a little older than he seemed,” said neighbor, Bill Merriken. “But he always seemed nice. He’d wave when he went by.”