Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Randolph Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals, adventure tales, war films, and even a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances more than 60 were in Westerns. Randolph Scott 's more than 30 years as a motion picture actor resulted in his working with many acclaimed screen directors, including Henry King, Rouben Mamoulian, Michael Curtiz, John Cromwell, King Vidor, and Fritz Lang. Randolph Scott also worked with a diverse array of cinematic leading ladies, from Shirley Temple and Irene Dunne to Mae West and Marlene Dietrich.

During the early 1950s, Randolph Scott was a consistent box-office draw. Tall, lanky, and handsome, Randolph Scott displayed an casual charm and courtly Southern drawl in his early films that helped offset his limitations as an actor, where Randolph Scott was frequently found to be stiff or "awkward". As Randolph Scott matured, however, Randolph Scott 's acting improved while his features became polished and leathery, turning him into the ideal "strong, silent" type of stoic hero. In his earlier Westerns the Randolph Scott "persona" is debonair, easy-going, graceful, though with the necessary hint of steel. As Randolph Scott matures into his fifties his roles change. Increasingly Randolph Scott becomes the man who has seen it all, who has suffered pain, loss, and hardship, and who has now achieved a stoic calm proof against change. By 1956 Randolph Scott was 58 years old, an age where the careers of most leading men would be winding down. Randolph Scott, however, was about to enter his finest and most acclaimed period. In 1955 screenwriter Burt Kennedy wrote a script entitled Seven Men from Now which was released in 1956 and did not make a great impact at the time but is now regarded by many as one of Randolph Scott's best.