- June Haver, I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now, 1946. This was supposed to be the debut oi Jean, aka Miss Ohio State University, as Katie McCullen, sister of song-writer Mark Stevens. She passed, saying the role made her look too ugly. (Difficult). Fox kept the faith with its “pocket Betty Grable.” Later debuted opposite Tyrone Power as The Captain From Castile, married Howard Hughes and, like him, disappeared from view. And never kissewd and told about their life together. The answer was Mark Stevens. The bigger question was – kissing who? Certainly not Peters.
- Anne Baxter, Yellow Sky, 1947., Peters anf Lasurrn Caball knew how to look after rthemselvds. They refused, point-blank, to make this tacky Western because her (tomboy!) role of Mike was too sexy. Er, Anne Baxter sexy? Can’t find the word szewxy in any reviews and all Gregory Peck remembered was breaking an ankle in a bad horse fall.
- Shirley Temple, Mr Belvedere Goes To College, 1948. For Clifton Webb’s return as Mr B, Jean was set to be Ellen Baker.So was Jeanne Crain.
- Barbara Lawrence, The Street With No Name, 1948. Almost an FBIrecruiting movie, it would hardly have improved her career. Nothing did until Viva Zapata!, 1952. Three years later, Jean retired on marrying tycoon Howard Hughes, January 12 1957. After their 1971 divorce, she said: “My life with Howard Hughes was and shall remain a matter on which I will have no comment.” Not even to say how much she got for saying that – and sticking to it.
- Colleen Gray, Sand, 1948. Another weak Western not made any stronger by Mark Stevens as the hero. No one in the movie, man or beast, is called Sand… Three strikes and Peters was out. Fox canned her, she went back to Ohio farm life until called back by Elia Kazan, no less, for the wife of Marlon Brando, no less, in Viva Zapata! no less in 1951.
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Hedy Lamarr, Samson and Delilah, 1948.
Cinemperor Cecil B DeMille’s 1935 plan had been had Henry Wilcoxon with Joan Crawford, Larraine Day, Dolores Del Rio, Paulette Goddard, Jane Greer or Miriam Hopkins. Next in line, producer David O Selznick envisaged Kirk Douglas and Marlene Dietrich… By ’48, CB got serious. He sought a mix of Vivien Leigh, Jean Simmons and “a generous touch of Lana Turner” from among… Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Rhonda Fleming (the Queen of Babylon, 1954), Ava Gardner, Greer Garson (Mrs Miniver!!), Susan Hayward (1951’s Bathsheba), Rita Hayworth (the future Salome), Jennifer Jones (St Bernadette in 1943), Patricia Neal, Maureen O’Hara, Nancy Olson (too demure), Jean Peters, Ruth Roman, Gail Russell, Ann Sheridan, Gene Tierney… even such surprises as comical LucIlle Ball (!) and song ‘n’ dancer Betty Hutton. Plus the Dominican Maria Montez (perfect!), Italian Alida Valli and two Swedes: Viveca Lindfors and Marta Toren. But CB had already fancied Lamarr for his unmade epic about the Jewish queen Esther (played by Joan Collins in 1960). Here’s a Samson review signed Groucho Marx: “No picture can hold my interest where the leading man’s bust is larger than the leading lady’s!” - Jennifer Jones, Portrait of Jennie, 1948. Gone With The Wind producer David O Selznick planned the film with Shirley Temple over several years, so that Jennifer could really grow older… DOS then thought that was too riskty. Or, to out it another way, he had met Mrs Robert Walker, made a “star” and would marry her… Film flopped. The reason Peters didn’t stand a chance…
- Betsy Drake, Dancing in the Dark, 1949. After thoughts of Dick Haymes or Clifton Webb making a star of Betty Grable, the 1947 plan was John Payne as the conceited movie idol turned lowly talent scout who discovers… Peters. (Before Howard Hughes managed that!). Terrible film proving that only MGM could make musicals, not Fox.
- Gene Tierney, Way Of A Gaucho, 1952. As if dropping Robert Mitchum wasn’t silly enough, Hollywood’sresident realisateur Jacques Tourneur (a director son of a director father) dumped his Anne of the Indies star, 1951, for Tierney.
- Mitzi Green, Bloodhounds of Broadway, 1952. Peters was in, then out. Enter: Green, the second Mitzi of what Fox fearlessly called a musical. Leading lady was Mitzi Gaynor. She owned the hounds. Named Nip and Tiuck. Madonna’s 1989 version was way better.
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Lauren Bacall, How To Marry A Millionaire, 1952. Bacall strikes again and proves who she is when her Schatze says: “I’ve always liked older men…. Look at that old fellow what’s-his-name in The African Queen. Absolutely crazy about him!” He was, of course, her late husband, Humphrey Bogart. As for co-star Marilyn Monroe: “She had no meanness in her – no bitchery. She just had to concentrate on herself and the people who were there only for her.”
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Joanne Dru, Siege At Red River, 1953. She tested for the Van Johnson Western about preventing hostiles getting hold of the Gatling gun.
- Bella Darvi, The Egyptian, 1953. “They want me to play Cleopatra,” said Marlon Brando. “In this Egyptian pile of camel dung.” He fled. Head Fox Darryl F Zanuck later admitted “even ten Brandos couldn’t have saved this turkey.” He still sued him for $2m until Brando “threw him a bone” – agreeing to be Napoleon in Desirée.In a more quiet manner, Peters – and Marilyn Monroe! – were replaced by Darvi. She just happened to be Zanuck’s latest French mistress – named from combining the names of Darry and his wife Virginia!!
- Yvonne De Carlo, The Ten Commandments,,1954.
- Debra Paget, The Ten Commandments,1954.
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Arlene Dahl, Woman’s World, 1954. Which guy wins the top job depends on their wives… Fred McMurray’s embittered Lauren Bacall from Philly; Cornel Wilde’s June Allyson, a hayseed from Kansas City; or Van Heflin’s Arlene Dahl, who, as Variety reported is “a pushy glamour gal, not unwilling to throw her sex around to gain her aims.” Early plans for to reunite James Stewart and Grace Kelly after Rear Window fell apart when Grace met Monaco… Jim vetoed new plans with Peters (a later regret) and Bacall met Gregory Peck.
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Lauren Bacall, The Gift of Love, 1957. Bacall’s first film since the death of Bogie. Bizarrely, she dies and winds up as a ghost… Peters, of course, was wed during 1957-1971. Tell me more, tell me more… No! “My life with Howard Hughes was and shall remain a matter on which I will have no comment.“
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Lauren Bacall, Designing Woman, 1956. Bacall strikes again… Plans for to reunite James Stewart and Grace Kelly after Rear Window fell apartt when Grace met Monaco… Jim vetoed new plans with Peters (a later regret) and Gregory Peck met Bacall met Gregory Peck.
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Suzy Parker, The Best of Everything, 1958. What was supposed to be Jean Peters’ comeback and her fifth film for director Jean Negulesco became a third A-film for Suzy, the ex-mannequin. They weren’t called supermodels in those 50s.
Birth year: 1926Death year: 2000Other name: Casting Calls: 19