Bertrice Reading

Victoria Abril, La lune dans le caniveau (US: The Moon in the Gutter), France-Italy,  1982.   The sole flaw in Paris casting icon Dominique Besnehard – he knew zilch about black actresses. He ran to veteran singers –  Reading, aged 49, and Nancy Holloway, 50 – for  Depardieu’s young lover, Bella. He then found Diahnne Abbott. …
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Bette Midler

  Stockard Channing, The Fortune, 1975. She didn’t know his work, much less his name, so a furious Mike Nichols stormed out of their meeting… Well, she was in a bad way .She  had just been sexually molested by her masseur  in The Beverly Wilshire steam room, as she finally explained in 1982, “I guess he …
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Betty Jane Rhodes

Jean Heather, Going My Way, 1943.       Twentysomethings Rhodes and Susan Hayward were seen for Carol in Bing Crosby’s first outing as the  “youthful” parish priest, Father Chuck O’Malley. (The sequel was The Bells of St Mary’s, 1944).  Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

Beverly Sills

Norma Crane, Fiddler on the Roof,  1970. The American opera diva –  born Belle Miriam Silverman in Brooklyn – was a wild card consideration  for Tevye’s wife, Golde, once Anne Bancroft passed. When winning the role, Norma   learned she had  breast cancer  – a fact she revealed only to a few, including her close friend, …
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