Jeffrey Scott Beaven (October 4, 1949 – July 30, 1993), known professionally by hispen nameJay Scott, was aCanadianfilm critic.[1]
Scott was born inLincoln, Nebraska and was raised inAlbuquerque, New Mexico as aSeventh-Day Adventist,[1] whose doctrine virtually prohibited movies.[2] Scott studied art history atNew College of Florida inSarasota,[3] and later took acting classes at theUniversity of New Mexico.[4]
Moving to Canada in 1969 as adraft evader, he settled inCalgary and began writing film reviews for theCalgary Albertan a few years later.[1] He won aNational Newspaper Award in 1975 for a review ofTheatre Passe Muraille's stage productionThe Alberta Cowboy Show,[4] and moved toToronto when he was hired byThe Globe and Mail in 1977.[1] WithThe Globe and Mail, he wrote an entertainment gossip column for his first year, before transferring to become a film reviewer.[4]
With theGlobe and Mail, Scott became Canada's most influential film critic,[1][2] winning two more National Newspaper Awards for his writing,[1] and is still widely remembered as one of the best and most influential film critics in the history of Canadian journalism.[5] He has also been credited as the catalyst for a major shift in the newspaper's own arts reporting style in his era, from a staid, strictly repertorial style toward more distinctive, colourful writing.[4]
He was also the host ofJay Scott's Film International, a film series onTVOntario,[3] and published three non-fiction books on both film and art:Midnight Matinees,Changing Woman: The Life and Art ofHelen Hardin, andThe Prints ofChristopher Pratt.[3]
From 1967 to 1980, he was in a relationship with Mary Bloom, whom he had met while studying in Sarasota.[3] After his divorce from Bloom, he came out asgay and began a relationship with Gene Corboy.[3] He was diagnosedHIV+ in 1986.[4]
He died ofAIDS-related causes in 1993.[6] He wrote for theGlobe and Mail until his death, and had been working on a book aboutNorman Jewison.[1] On the night of his death, TVOntario pulled a scheduled rerun ofFilm International to broadcast a tribute to Scott, including a screening of one of his all-time favorite films,Jean-Luc Godard'sBreathless.[1]
Roger Ebert eulogized Scott as a "supremely well-informed critic who was able to translate his knowledge into superb prose that transmitted his passion for the movies."[1]Clint Eastwood sent an unsolicited $5,000 donation to Toronto'sCasey House AIDS hospice in Scott's memory.[7] At the1993 Toronto International Film Festival, filmmakerJohn Greyson dedicated his Special Jury Citation forZero Patience to Scott's memory.[8]
A collection of his reviews,Great Scott! The Best of Jay Scott's Movie Reviews, was published posthumously in 1994; proceeds from the book sales were donated to theCanadian Foundation for AIDS Research.[9]
In 2009, theToronto Film Critics Association established an annual award for emerging talent in the Canadian film industry, theJay Scott Prize, in Scott's memory.[10] The winner of the award receives$10,000.[11]
He is the subject of an essay, written by currentGlobe and Mail film critic Barry Hertz, in the 2024 bookA Nation’s Paper: The Globe and Mail in the Life of Canada.[4]
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