The Twilight Zone actress Pippa Scott dies aged 90

Pippa Scott, best known for roles in films including The Searchers and Auntie Mame, has died aged 90.

Born in Los Angeles in 1935, Scott was the daughter of actress Laura Straub and screenwriter Allan Scott; who famously wrote several musicals for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers – including Top Hat and Swing Time.

Meanwhile her uncle was blacklisted screenwriter Adrian Scott, who was one of the Hollywood Ten blacklisted during the McCarthy era after joining the Communist Party.

The actress died on May 2 of congenital heart failure at her home in Santa Monica, with Scott’s death confirmed by her daughter Miranda Tollman to The Hollywood Reporter this week.

Before pursuing a career in acting, Scott studied landscape architecture at California State Polytechnic University, then going on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Her 1956 Broadway debut in Child of Fortune saw her win a Theatre World Award and, soon after, Scott was signed by Warner Bros.

Her movie debut came that same year – playing a niece of John Wayne’s character in John Ford’s Western The Searchers.

Subsequent film roles included As Young As We Are, Auntie Mame, My Six Loves and Cold Turkey, alongside Dick Van Dyke.

She also appeared in the TV shows Mr Lucky, The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason and Mission Impossible, as well as The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

Scott married producer Lee Rich in 1964. He went on to form Lorimar Productions, which produced shows including Dallas and Knots Landing.

Although the couple divorced in 1983, they reunited in 1996 and remained together until his death in 2012.

After turning her attention to work behind the camera for two decades, her last screen role was in the independent 2011 movie Footprints

Scott is survived by daughters Jessica and Miranda and five grandchildren.

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