Jay Scott was the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 of Jeffrey Scott Beaven (1949 – July 30, 1993), a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 film critic.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska

Lincoln, Nebraska

The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....

, Scott fled to Canada in 1969 as a draft dodger

Draft dodger

Draft evasion is a term that refers to an intentional failure to comply with the military conscription policies of the nation to which he or she is subject...

. He settled in Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, and began writing film reviews for the Calgary Albertan a few years later. He won a National Newspaper Award in 1975, and moved to Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 when he was hired by The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

in 1977.

With the Globe and Mail, Scott became Canada's most influential film critic, and is still widely remembered as one of the best and most influential film critics in the history of Canadian journalism.

Openly gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

, he died of AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

-related causes in 1993. He wrote for the Globe and Mail until his death.

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 the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research

Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research

The Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research is a Canadian charitable foundation whose goal is to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS to increase funds for research. All of CANFAR’s fundraising efforts are geared towards raising money to fund Canadian HIV/AIDS research...

.