10 Best George C. Scott Movies, Ranked

George C. Scott is up there with the best actors of his generation, and had a seriously impressive film acting career that spanned four decades and contained plentiful great films. Scott's distinct for exploding onto the scene, rather than gradually working his way into the film world, seeing as after just three roles, he already had two Oscar nominations. He kept that momentum going throughout his career, and had interesting roles at both its start and end, as well as in between.

He's well-known for also being one of the loudest and perhaps most over-the-top actors of all time, but if one chews scenery well, then one should be allowed to chew scenery. Many of Scott's best roles let him go all-out, and bearing witness to such performances is always a delight. Some of his very best movies are ranked below, starting with the good and ending with the greatest he ever appeared in.

10 'Taps' (1981)

Directed by Harold Becker

When watched today, Taps might be a movie that jumps out for starring a young Tom Cruise well before the Mission: Impossible series and various other blockbusters made him a big star. Yet back in 1981, it's safe to say that George C. Scott was the best-known actor appearing in the film, and doing so alongside other younger/up-and-coming actors like Cruise, Timothy Hutton, and Sean Penn.

Taps largely takes place inside a military school, and follows a group of young cadets who collectively take over the school when they feel like it's the only thing they can do to defend it against condo developers who want to close it down. George C. Scott plays the man who's in charge of the school, General Harlan Bache, and brings the expected gravitas and explosive quality one would expect from the actor in a role like this.

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9 'The Exorcist III' (1990)

Directed by William Peter Blatty

Without a doubt, the best Exorcist movie that isn't the 1973 original would have to be The Exorcist III. It feels like it more accurately captures the vibe, atmosphere, and unique horror sensibilities of the first, compared to Exorcist II: The Heretic. Helping things out is the fact that it finds interesting things for certain characters from the first movie to do, even though the main character here, Lieutenant William F. Kinderman, was played by Lee J. Cobb in the original (the actor passed away in 1976).

George C. Scott is Kinderman in The Exorcist III, and does a fine job overall showing how the character becomes increasingly troubled and out of sorts while investigating a series of gruesome murders. It's an odd horror movie, and the pacing feels strange, but the way it builds on the events of the first movie does end up being interesting, especially when there's a surprising connection between the killings and Father Damien Karras from the original movie. There are some great scares within this third Exorcist film, and Scott gives a charismatic and entertainingly bombastic performance.

The Exorcist III

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8 'The Changeling' (1980)

Directed by Peter Madek

Not to be mixed up with the 2008 Clint Eastwood-directed film called Changeling, which was a mystery/drama, 1980's The Changeling is instead a horror movie. It's essentially a haunted house movie, and though such horror films have been done to death and then some, the fact that this one unfolds with a tortured character played by George C. Scott at its center does ultimately help make it stand out.

He plays a composer who plans to move away from where he once lived, following a tragedy, and start a new life in a large, potentially haunted house. Those who like their horror movies as fast-paced as possible may not be continually thrilled with the kind of horror on offer in The Changeling, but anyone ready to appreciate a good slow-burn will find a good deal to get engrossed by contained within this.

The Changeling (1980)

After the death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, a music professor staying at a long-vacant Seattle mansion is dragged into a decades-old mystery by an inexplicable presence in the mansion's attic.

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7 '12 Angry Men' (1997)

Directed by William Friedkin

1957's 12 Angry Men is often regarded as one of the greatest drama movies of all time, so making another adaptation with the same story and much of the same dialogue was always going to be risky. It was a task that director William Friedkin nonetheless felt up to tackling, and so in 1997, there was a TV movie of 12 Angry Men. It can't be called as good as the more well-known version starring Henry Fonda, but it's still very well-made overall.

Jack Lemmon plays the first juror who suggests the defendant at the heart of the trial they've been involved in is not guilty, with George C. Scott ironically taking over another role Lee J. Cobb - from The Exorcist - initially played, as Cobb was Juror 3 in the original. It's certainly serviceable stuff overall, and mostly shines thanks to the strength of its cast, which also includes the likes of James Gandolfini, Edward James Olmos, and Courtney B. Vance.

12 Angry Men

Twelve jurors are confined to a deliberation room during a sweltering summer, tasked with deciding the guilt or innocence of a young man accused of murder. Initially appearing as a straightforward case, the proceedings take a dramatic turn as one dissenting juror begins to challenge the evidence. The intense narrative explores the complexities of justice and human nature as each juror confronts their own biases and the dynamics of group decision-making.

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6 'The Hospital' (1971)

Though The Hospital isn't one of George C. Scott's most famous movies, it is still worth bringing up as a sort of under-appreciated gem from the 1970s. It's noteworthy for getting Scott his fourth (and final) Academy Award nomination, received for playing the lead role in this film about the chief of medicine at a hospital in Manhattan finding his professional life slowly unravel, with his psychological well-being falling into ruin simultaneously.

The Hospital feels distinctly of its time, being the sort of odd and darkly funny movie that might not have found an audience if released outside the 1970s. Scott gives an energetic and anxiety-ridden performance, adding perfectly to the strange tone the film as a whole is going for. It's also notable for co-starring Diana Rigg, who just two years earlier had featured in arguably her most well-known film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969).

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5 'Hardcore' (1979)

Directed by Paul Schrader

A movie that has the guts to call itself Hardcore isn't going to mess around, and so it's fitting that 1979's Hardcore makes for a persistently tense and oftentimes uncomfortable viewing experience. George C. Scott stars here as a man who's once more pushed to his breaking point and placed in an unimaginably awful situation. In this instance, it's because his teenage daughter has gone missing, and he soon finds out she may have gotten involved in the seedy adult movie scene in Los Angeles.

Its most infamous scene might've been turned into a meme, but in context, it's perhaps one of the best-acted and most devastating scenes Scott ever acted in. It's also one of the most underrated movies written and directed by an underrated filmmaker, Paul Schrader, who made it relatively early in his career and has continued to make interesting films throughout the decades since.

hardcore

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4 'Anatomy of a Murder' (1959)

Directed by Otto Preminger

One of the best movies of the 1950s also happens to be only the second movie George C. Scott ever appeared in: Anatomy of a Murder. It's arguable that Scott stole the show here, at least in the scenes he appeared in, with him deservedly getting a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as a very passionate prosecutor in a high-profile and highly publicized murder trial.

The main character's played by James Stewart, though, with him appearing here as a significantly older defense lawyer who represents the accused. Both Stewart and Scott give great performances, and Anatomy of a Murder is overall riveting and consistently exciting, staying engaging for its 2.5+ hour runtime. It's up there with the greatest courtroom dramas of all time, and Scott's performance is remarkable, especially considering this was just his second film.

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3 'The Hustler' (1961)

Directed by Robert Rossen

The Hustler might well be the definitive Paul Newman movie, or at least the definitive Paul Newman movie that doesn't also feature Robert Redford. Newman plays a young pool hustler known as Fast Eddie, who's effortlessly cool but also has a certain amount of confidence that continually places him in perilous situations. Things reach peak intensity when he decides to challenge an older and more experienced pool player to a high-stakes game the entire movie builds to throughout.

For as great as Paul Newman is, the supporting cast also shines pretty bright, with this being George C. Scott's third movie, and the one that gave him his second Oscar nomination. He plays Bert, who's essentially the film's villain, with Scott shining in a true "love-to-hate" kind of performance. Piper Laurie was also nominated at the Oscars for her role in the film, making The Hustler one incredibly well-acted movie.

The Hustler

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2 'Patton' (1970)

Co-written by Francis Ford Coppola not long before he found breakout success as a director, Patton is arguably the definitive George C. Scott film where he plays the lead role. He plays the title character, George S. Patton, with this being a compelling biographical film that focuses on Patton's experiences during World War II as a well-known and famously passionate general who led troops in various battles throughout the years-long conflict.

Scott won his sole Oscar for his performance here, and it was a well-deserved one, because it's a role that it feels like he was born to play. Without a doubt, he's magnetic whenever he's on-screen throughout this nearly three-hour-long film. Patton's also engaging as a well-made and big-budget epic, successfully covering numerous events throughout World War II and feeling as though it successfully gets to the heart of who Patton was, and what drove him to be that way.

Patton

The World War II phase of the career of controversial American general George S. Patton.

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1 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' (1964)

Perhaps the greatest film of 1964, and also among the very best of its entire decade, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb still holds up extremely well. It sees Stanley Kubrick making some hard-hitting and oftentimes bleak observations about the Cold War and the ways in which atomic bombs could end the world, but doing so within an absurd and frequently hilarious satire/farce.

Even if Peter Sellers often feels like he's stealing the show, thanks largely to the fact he plays three characters, George C. Scott is also phenomenal and consistently dialed up to 11 as General Buck Turgidson. As the legend goes, Kubrick tricked Scott into doing "practice shots" where he'd go over the top, reassuring Scott the less extreme takes wouldn't go into the movie... though Kubrick lied. Still, Scott's one of the best things in the movie because of how far he pushes himself into ridiculous territory, and it's something that makes Dr. Strangelove an all-time classic.

Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb (1964)

Stanley Kubrick's 1964 black-and-white satire Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb parodies the growing tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Starring Peter Sellers, the plot revolves around a US Air Force general who orders a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union against the wishes of the government.

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NEXT: The Greatest Movies of the 1960s, Ranked

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