Scott was born in
Morristown, New Jersey. His mother was a housewife and his father, Harold Russell Scott Sr., was a
general practitioner. Scott was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard. He had a career as a stage director on Broadway and Off-Broadway, but began as an actor of note, performing in
Jean Genet's
The Blacks and an acclaimed production of the premiere of
The Death of Bessie Smith by Edward Albee. Winner of the
Obie Award for acting in
Jean Genet's
Deathwatch in 1959, Scott also played on Broadway in
The Cool World. Scott was chosen by
Elia Kazan to be an original member of the Repertory Theater of
Lincoln Center, where he performed in
Arthur Miller's
After the Fall and
Incident at Vichy, and was cast by
José Quintero in Thomas Middleton's
Changeling and
Eugene O'Neill's
Marco Millions. In 1984, Scott returned to Off-Broadway to play Brutus in a modern dress production of Shakespeare's
Caesar with the
Riverside Shakespeare Company at
The Shakespeare Center under the direction of W. Stuart McDowell. Scott staged numerous innovative productions in New York and at regional theatres, including
Morgan Freeman in
The Mighty Gents on Broadway in 1978, and
Avery Brooks in
Paul Robeson on Broadway twice: in 1988 and again in 1995. Scott also directed the twenty-fifth anniversary production of
A Raisin in the Sun, with
Esther Rolle. This production opened at the
Roundabout Theatre in New York; it then broke box-office records at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Scott's production received nine National Theater Awards from the NAACP, including best director, and was filmed for public television's Great Performances. Scott was head of the directing program at the
Mason Gross School of the Arts, at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In 1980, he taught acting classes at The Peterborough Players in Peterborough, NH. During this time, he performed as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing, appeared in A Streetcar Named Desire, and substituted for an actor in Garson Kanin's Born Yesterday. He served as Staff Director from 1981–85, associate director from 1985–88, and Acting Artistic Director from 1989–90 at the same theater. In February 2006, Scott directed his final play,
Yellowman, an examination of black-on-black prejudice, at the
Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, where in 1973, he began a two-year appointment as artistic director. He was the first African-American to have earned such in a major regional theatre. He died in Newark New Jersey in 2006 of complications from heart failure == References ==