Lila Lee

  1. Barbara Stanwyck, Shopworn, 1931.   The ex-kid star – known as Cuddles – was first up for the wrong-side-of-the-tracks waitress on the rise, a typical Stanwyck strong woman although, she called the film “one of those terrible pictures they sandwiched in when you started.” (She had actually started ten films earlier) . Lee grew up in Valentino’s 1922 Blood and Sand, survived the advent of sound and mothered actor-writer James Kirwkwood Jr, one of the three Chorus Line writers.
  2. Mona Maris, Viva Villa, 1933.      Once Jack Conway took over from Howard Hawks after actor Lee Tracy allegedly pissed on the Revolution Day parade in Mexico, several Hawksian actors were dropped, including Maris as Teresa. Also tested to replace her were Dorothy Burgess, Myrna Loy and Carmel Myers.

 Birth year: 1901Death year: 1973Other name: Casting Calls:  2