Catherine Scott is the first real person Andrea King ever played. The film “God Is My Co-Pilot” (Warner Bros., 1945) is based on the then-recent biographical best-seller by Col. Robert L. Scott, and it depicts his heroic adventures overseas, emphasizing his belief in faith, family, and country. Andrea remembers vividly the day Col. Scott and his wife visited the set during filming. Catherine was Col. Scott’s hometown spouse—steadfast, devoted, and true. And Andrea, with her own enlisted husband somewhere unknown to her in the South Pacific, was proud and honored to meet her. When the film opened, Andrea received much critical praise and an enormous amount of fan mail from wives all over the world who were bravely awaiting the return of their husbands in the armed forces. Playing opposite Dennis Morgan as Col. Scott, Andrea delivered an outstanding supporting performance. The movie went on to become one of Warner Bros.’ highest grossing pictures of the year.
The role of Catherine Scott was a huge departure from her most recent screen portrayal of another hometown wife—also with an absent, enlisted husband—in Warners’ “The Very Thought of You” (1944). In that film, however, Andrea’s character Molly Wheeler has all but forgotten her wartime groom, the thought simply too painful for her to bear. Instead, she chooses to spend her evenings out socializing with the boys!
Andrea was thrilled to have such an exciting acting challenge of playing these two contrasting women, reacting so differently to the same situation.