Dorothy Stickney

 

  1. Gale Sondergaard, The Life of Emile Zola, 1936. Stickney and Josephine Hutchinson were also in the Warner frame frame for Emile’s wife, Lucie, in a superb film, if less about the Zola oeuvre than his exposure of the Dreyfus affair. Sixty-two years later, the two actresses died within two days of each other in June 1998 when Josephine was 94 and Dorothy, 101.
  2. Irene Dunne, Life With Father, 1946.  Stickney co-starred with her husband, Howard Lindsay, in  his and Broadway’s longest running play. They both tested for the Michael  Curtiz movie but were deemed too old. There  no close-ups on-stage…
  3. Ruth Gordon, Harold and Maude, 1971.   OK, there were obviously quite a few possible Harolds, but surely Ruth was the only possible Maude – even if shecouldn’t drive a car.Not quite. Director Hal Ashby chatted up every funky old bird still breathing and insurable…Peggy Ashcroft, Elisabeth Bergner, Gladys Cooper, Edith Evans, Edwige Feuillère, Mildred Natwick.

 Birth year: 1896Death year: 1998Other name: Casting Calls:  3