Crawley's Casting Calls

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© Tony Crawley 2017
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CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE

There are 7,000 actors detailed on the CCC website. Some have missed a single film. Others, many more. Then, there are the champions. LIke these …

1. Brando - bypassed 152 movies.
2. Nicholson - 140
3. Cary Grant -132
4. Paul Newman - 115
5. Robert De Niro - 114
6. Dustin Hoffman - 109
7. Tom Cruise - 105

Highest Brit remains Sir Sean at 90.
Highest lady is Bette Davis, 78 items; Jodie Foster, 70; Liz Taylor, 67; Katharine Hepburn, 63; Julie Christie, Meryl Streep 61; Jane Fonda,Julia Roberts, 57; Madonna Michelle Pfeiffer, 56.
Newer Brigade: Leo, Nicole Kidman, 53;Natalie Portman, 43; Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, 41; Lindsay Lohan (!), 39; Ewan McGregor, 34; Matt Damon, 33; Christian Bale, 30.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

QUOTES

"If you made only the films you liked, you'd only work once every five years."
Paul Newman

"All the roles I refused were unnecessarily vulgar."
Ginger Rogers (Oh really like… Annie Get Your Gun, Ball of Fire, King Kong (the first), Mary of Scotland, Now Voyager, South Pacific?)

"If I had stayed in Hollywood, I would have killed myself. Or someone would have done it for me."
Piper Laurie

"You don't make TV shows for fun - you make them for money."
Lee Marvin

"If you think I made poor pictures after A Woman's Face, you should see the ones I went on suspension not to make!"
Joan Crawford

"Acting is like masturbation. One either does it or one doesn't, but one never talks about it." *
Eric Portman (*Except Ernest Borgnine and Gloria Stuart).

"I was a great casting director - forever suggesting other people instead of me."
Alexandra Stewart. She turned down Honey in Dr No.

"Stardom? Your name becomes a brand image like a product. You become Campbell's soup, with 31 different varieties of roles you can play."
Jack Nicholson.

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WELCOME to a unique directory of what you never saw on-screen. The films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories ... Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 7,000 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making!! And 1.9 million words of spirited text. The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars.  

FLASHBACKS

'60s

SEVENTH SADDLE
Director John Sturges had trouble finding The Magnificent Seventh. Veterans like Sterling Hayden and John Ireland passed on the silent one - he only had 11 lines. (Ah, but plus the knife). Robert Vaughn eventually recommended an old schoolmate. James Coburn.

'70s

THAT’S MY ROLE!
"The only really good role I’ve rejected - and I could kill myself - was The Great Gatsby," says Jack Nicholson. "Since I was 18, people said I should do Jay Gatsby. I didn’t really go after the part for well, personal reasons I don’t want printed."

'80s

BEATRICE BLUE
French casting king Dominique Besnehard found Betty Blue on a magazine cover. Took one look at Béatrice Dalle and said, "Same race as Bardot and Monroe!" "He was rude, took it for granted that I wanted to be in films," Dalle told Frederic Albert Levy on a 2013 bonus. "I was afraid… But the only alternative was shoplifting."

'00s

TOYS R AWFUL
UK hunk Ray Park went from Star Wars’ and X Men to such ridiculous toys-as-source-material as GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, 2008. Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers skewered it. "I don't know what to say about the acting, writing and directing ... because I couldn’t find any."

WHERE TO FIND ..?

PERFECT GRYSHENKA

How Hollywood ruined Marilyn Monroe's dream role in The Brothers Karamazov is on Marilyn's page - item #17

FULL METAL HALL

For the fullest story of why Anthony Michael Hall did not make Stanley Kubrick's 'Nam classic, go to Hall's page. (The blue section).

STREEP KONG

Meryl v Italian producer Dino de Laurentiis. Read all about it - in her first item.

TORN APART

Why didn't Rip Torn make Easy Rider - see his blue section on his page.

All The President's Men montage: Reg Oliver, 1976.
Darkest Hour: Focus Features, 2017.
Albert Finney: Horizon Pictures (II)/Columbia Pictures, 1961.
Grease: Paramount-Robert Stigwood Organization, 1977.
Tom Selleck: Belisarius Productions/Glenn A Larson Productions/Universal TV, 1988.
Shirley Temple: Selznick International Pictures, 1946.
Thunderball: Eon Productions, 1965.
Wonder Woman: Warner Bros, 2017.
Plus enormous thanks to The Man: Daniel Bouteiller.

WHAT'S GOING ON?

Some pages have muddling changes of typefaces, colours, spaces, and somewordssqueezedtogether ... Extremely sorry! As Valmont said: "Beyond my control." This follows improving security. Long story. Corrections are happening.

Fair Use Notice: This CCC site is operated under the assumption that its not-for-profit policy constitutes a "fair use" of the copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. All photos, audio/video clips and information taken from selected videos, books, magazines and internet resources are for entertainment and educational purposes only. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond the interpretation of fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.