Slim Pickens

  1. Sheb Wooley, Giant, 1955.
  2. Scatman Crothers, The Shining, 1979. The old Westerner refused to work with Stanley Kubrick again after Dr Strangelove or How I Learned To Stop Worrying and to Love the Bomb, 1963. Crothers asked pal Jack Nicholson to put in a good word for him. But Pickens was right. Kubrick often insisted on up to 70 takes (three days and 60 doors for the “Here’s Johnny!” scene), reducing Shelley Duvall and grown men, like Crothers at 69, to tears. “Just what is it that you want, Mr Kubrick?” He didn’t know. He was, quite suddenly, a director without direction. In his next film, Bronco Billy, Crothers was directed by Clint Eastwood. He was usually content with the first take. Or even the rehearsal!

 Birth year: 1919Death year: 1983Other name: Casting Calls:  2