- Carl Möhner Hell Is Empty, UK-Czeckoslovakia, 1963. British businessman Mike Elabnd, the fourth husband of French siren Martine Carol, wanted to restore her self-confidence when her career had shuddered to halt in 1962 – due to rthe rise of trhe much younger (and sexier) Brigitte Bardot. Bernard Knowles started shooting in Britain in ’63 – with Kinski and Guy Madison as the leading men. Martine fell ill and died before spootiing was completed. Shooting started up again in’66 with a heavily bandaged leading lady and Kinski and Madison becoming Möhner – and Anthony Steel, also down and out since his marriage to Anita Ekberg. The mess reached France in November 1973 as Jugement à Prague. There was no applause. (Martine’s co-star, Patricia Viterbo was also dead – at 24).
- Joachim Teege, Rocket To The Moon, 1967. Kinski – “I know that I’m a genius!” – quit and left the Brits (Terry-Thomas, etc) farcing about with Jules Verne. After five explosive film encounters, German director Werner Herzog saw Kinski as “a peculiar mixture of physical cowardice and courage”… with “a snorting snarl.”
- Christopher Lee, To The Devil A Daughter, 1976. Keen on being in “Hammer’s last movie” until finding out it would require more than ten days of his precious time. His daughhter, Nastassja, played the teenage victim of what would have been his Satanist priest.
- Richard Johnson, The Monster Club, 1980. London producer Milton Subotsky set out to grab the six top horror stars of the day. He got John Carradine, Peter Cushing, Donald Pleasence, Vincent Price. But Kinski and Christopher Leeut Klaus Kinski and Christopher Lee . never RSVPed their party invites. Johnson was hardly a horror name.
- Arthur Dignam, Strange Behaviour, Australia-New Zealand, 1981. KK refused to be Dr Le Sangel in what US director Michael Laughlin called the first of three Strange movies. Sure eniugh, Strange Invaders came next (Fiona Lewis was in both), but the third remains yet to be. Laughlin’s third film was Mesmerised, not a word one would banter with on describing his movies. His eight productions were way better: including The Whisperers, Two Lane Backtop, Chandler and Nicole – starring his wife, Leslie Caron.
- Ronald Lacey, Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981.
- Frank Finlay, Lifeforce, 1985.
- Vittorio Mezzogiorna, Cerro Torre : Schrei aus Stein (Scream of Stone), Germany-France-Canada-Italy-Argentina, 1991. Kinski was due to star in a third film for German director Werner Herzog but was not fit enough to work in, on and around Argentina’s dangerous Cerro Torre mountain. In fact, Kinski died two months after the premiere at the 1991 Venice festival.
Birth year: 1926Death year: 1991Other name: Casting Calls: 8