by Thinus Ferreira
The legendary and prolific actor, comedian, director and palm-reader Clive Scott known for roles on stage, in film and on television in series like The Villagers, Isidingo and Life Begins at 40 died on Wednesday. He was 84.
His daughter, Gudrun Scott Cleghorn, confirmed the death of her dad on Facebook. Clive Scott was also a lecturer and film producer and starred in a plethora of South African TV commercials over several decades. His cause of death is not yet known.
"Clive, our beloved husband, father, grandfather, uncle and brother met Archangel Azrael at 14:30 today, surrounded by the love and light of loved ones who had passed before him. Our hearts are broken and our lives will never be the same again. He touched so many lives and was loved by so many. A truly remarkable life lived."
"My brother's Tom, Luke, Lufuno and I are deeply grateful for the outpouring of love and for the exceptional care our father experienced in the last moments of his life," she wrote.
TV trivia buffs will remember that Clive Scott played the character of the barman Ted Dixon in The Villagers, South Africa's very first locally-produced TV drama series on the SABC's TV1 in 1976.
He then popped up, as Ted Dixon again in Isidingo on SABC3, 23 years later, reprising the role of Ted Dixon, since Isidingo was created by producer Gray Hofmeyr and was based on The Villagers - that was also created years earlier by Gray Hofmeyr.
Clive Scott toured throughout South Africa doing many stage shows, was a voice actor in numerous SABC Radio series. He and Gordon Mulholland also took their own stage productions around South Africa.
Born in Johannesburg on 4 July 1937, Clive Scott, born as Robert Clive Cleghorn, worked in banking for two years but he left to go work in the former Rhodesia and then left Zimbabwe for the United Kingdom where he stayed for 12 years and studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art where he had roles on stage across Britain and also on television in episodes of Doctor Who and The Last of the Baskets.
Clive Scott returned to South Africa in 1970 and starred in films like My Way, The Baby Game, Bait and Sell a Million. He became a household name after his 3-year role as Ted in The Villagers and one of South Africa's first TV stars.
Clive Scott had roles in films in every decade since the 1970s like Home Before Midnight, Skelms, Magic is Alive My Friends, Blind Justice, Killer Instinct, Sweet Murder, The Fourth Reich, No Hero, Live Wire 2, Operation Delta Target 3, Traitor's Heart, Operation Delta Force 5, Sumuru, Citizen Verdict, Stander, Beat the Drum, Duma, and was judge FL Rumpff in 2011's Winnie Mandela.
He appeared in 2016's Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu, with his last film role that was in 2019's French-African film Black Snake.
He also had roles in Miss Candida, River Horse Lake, The Adventures of Sinbad, Blind Justice, 1989's Barney Barnato, Tropical Heat, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, Rhodes, The Devil's Whore and the sitcom Life Begins at 40.
He was in 2009's Wild at Heart and played a principal in the 2018-miniseries Liberty.
In one of his last TV soap roles he appeared in Binnelanders on kykNET (DStv 144) as an elderly man with Alzheimers.
His roles in made-for-TV movies ranged from Where Angels Tread, Dark Desires: Diana, Mauwie, Pride of Africa, Red Water to Der weisse Afrikaner.
He directed and played the lead in The Moon is Blue at the Brooke Theatre in 1977 and also performed on stage in A Community of Two, Let Sleeping Wives Lie, Odd Man In, Night and Day, Happy Birthday, Towards Zero, Till Debts Do Us Part, was Major General in The Pirates of Penzance in 1986, Double Act, The Little Foxes, The Sum of Us, Don't Dress for Dinner, 1994's Oliver!, Funny Money, and Pieter-Dirk Uys' Auditioning Angels in 2003 at the Grahamstown Festival.
In his Warts and All one-man performance at Foxwood House that he started in 2014, he shared humorous anecdotes and stories about his life and career.
Clive Scott had a prolific career appearing in numerous South African TV commercials over decades, appearing as a funny face for every conceivable homegrown South African brand ranging from Mrs Balls chutney to MultiChoice's DStv.
Clive Scott leaves behind his wife Margie, and his children Gudrun, Thomas, Luke and adopted son Brian/Lufuno.