- Robert Preston, The Music Man, 1962. And that rhymes with… Kaye.. who had also been first choice for the Broadway show. Jack Warner begged Cary Grant to do it. “Not only will I not star in it, but if Robert Preston doesn’t star in it, I will not see it,” he said – and used a similar line about Rex Harrison when Warner offered him My Fair Lady, in 1963.” Also refusing to steal Preston’s thunder: Milton Berle, Ray Bolger, Art Carney, Dan Dailey, Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra…and Phil Harris, bandleader-singer-actor, and the voice of three of three Disney toon favourites: The Jungle Book’s Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book, 1966; the cat Thomas O’Malley in The Aristocats, 1966; and another bear, Little John, in Robin Hood, 1971.
Birth year: 1904Death year: 1995Other name: Casting Calls: 1