Sir Ridley Scott was born on the 30th of November, 1937.¹⁾

Ridley Scott was born to Elizabeth (Williams) and Colonel Francis Percy Scott in South Shields, County Durham, North East England.²⁾

He was raised in an army household, therefore his father — an officer in the Royal Engineers – was gone for the most of his childhood.³⁾

Frank, his elder brother, joined the British Merchant Navy when he was still a child, and the two had minimal contact.⁴⁾

During this period, the family traveled about, residing in Cumberland, North West England, Wales, and Germany, among other places. Tony, his younger brother, also became a film director.⁵⁾

Following WWII, the Scott family returned to their home North East, finally settling on Greens Beck Road in Hartburn, County Durham, whose industrial environment inspired similar scenes in Blade Runner.⁶⁾

From 1954 to 1958, he attended Grangefield Grammar School and West Hartlepool College of Art, graduating with a certificate in design.⁷⁾

Ridley Scott went on to study at the Royal College of Art in London, where he contributed to the college journal ARK and helped to create the film department.⁸⁾

He developed a black and white short film, Boy and Bicycle, for his farewell presentation, featuring both his younger brother and his father (the video was eventually included on the “Extras” portion of The Duellists DVD).⁹⁾

Scott was listed as “Designer” in the title credits of the BBC television show Tonight, which was about the terrible winter of 1963, in February 1963.¹⁰⁾

Following graduating in 1963, he landed a position with the BBC as a trainee set designer, which led to employment on the popular television police series Z-Cars and science fiction series Out of the Unknown.¹¹⁾

Originally, he was tasked with designing the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks, which would have meant creating the serial's titular alien beings. However, owing to a scheduling difficulty, Scott was replaced by Raymond Cusick soon before his start date.¹²⁾

In 1965, he began directing episodes of television shows for the BBC, of which just one, an episode of Adam Adamant Lives!, is widely popular.¹³⁾

Ridley and Tony Scott established Ridley Scott Associates (RSA), a film and commercial production firm, in 1968.¹⁴⁾