Scott, Jay

▪ 1994

      (JEFFREY SCOTT BEAVEN), U.S.-born Canadian film critic (b. Oct. 4, 1949, Lincoln, Neb.—d. July 30, 1993, Toronto, Ont.), elevated film criticism to an art with his insightful, witty, and influential reviews, which graced the pages of the Toronto-based Globe and Mail from 1977 until his death. Before moving to Toronto in 1977 and changing his name to Jay Scott, the aspiring writer was simultaneously studying drama and working at the Albuquerque (N.M.) Journal. There, as a feature writer, he had himself briefly committed to a hospital and wrote a prizewinning series on how the state treated the mentally ill. In 1975 he moved to Canada, where he worked as an investigative reporter for the now-defunct Calgary Albertan newspaper—producing, for example, a groundbreaking series on sex-change operations—besides writing film reviews. Scott, Canada's most eminent film critic and the winner of three National Newspaper Awards, died of AIDS-related infections.

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