Tag:Singer

Isabelle Adjani, L’Eté meurtrier (UK/US : One Deadly Summer),  France, 1982.    When Adjani backed out because of the nudity required, her potential successors included two singers (Lio and Jeanne Mas) and dancer Anne Fontaine.  Lio, France’s favourite Portugese singer, regretted refusing –  *because I would have been that Isabelle Adjani.” Once Valerie Kaprisky was signed, …
Continue reading Lio

1. – Judith Henry, Germinal, France, 1993. Having discovered and first produced an album with her, Gérard Depardieu put in a good word for Patricia. Unfortunately for her, she made  her acting debut not for showman Claude Berri, but show-off Claude Lelouch.    Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  0

Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge! 2001.    “A perfect role for me but…” The Boyzone star auditioned in New York with the director Baz Luhrman’s wife playing Nicole Kidman’s part. “I just panicked. I was crap. I hate that I ws  crap” The handsome Irish singer lost out to the Scots actor – who could warble …
Continue reading Ronan Keating

Rosario Dawson, 25th Hour, 2001.     Director Spike Lee thought of Alicia for Naturelle Riviera, the lover of Edward Norton – examining his life during  the day before  before going to jail for eight years Zoe Saldana, The Terminal, 2004.     Although chased by Spielberg and Halle Berry for films, the singer started …
Continue reading Alicia Keys

  Chris Tucker, The Fifth Element, France, 1997.      Having secured Bruce Willis, realisateur Luc Besson thought why not Kravitz – or  Prince! –  as Ruby Rhod. They were hardly interested in being comedy relief. Jesse L Martin, Sexual Healing, 2013. Last minute change of Marvin Gaye in the musical biopic as rock singer Kravitz …
Continue reading Lenny Kravitz

Margaret Avery, The Colour Purple, 1985.    It was inevitable that Steven Spielberg would go to Tina Turner with the script. There was a perfect part for her – jazz singer Shug Avery, described by Chicago critic Roger Ebert as a pathetic, alcoholic juke-joint singer… who has been ravaged by life yet still has an indestructible …
Continue reading Patti Labelle

Paula Jai Parker, She Got Hate, 2003.   The Cleveland stand-up  and singer fled from auteur Spike Lee’s often ouyrageous film (or five in one said Chicago critic Roger Ebert) because, Kim felt, playing Evelyn could ruin her image.  Who? The lady with all those sexual lyrics?  Birth year: Death year: Other name: Kimberly Denise JonesUsual …
Continue reading Lil’ Kim

  Michael York,  Conduct  Unbecoming,  1975.    Unseen in films since Privilege in 1967, the rock singer had turned actor and played the role, 2nd Lieutenant  Arthur Drake, on Broadway.      Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

Richard Kiley, The  Little Prince, 1974.   Best kept secret of the casting shuffles once Sinatra quit the Lerner and Loewe version of Saint-Expury…. Gene Hackman, Richard Harris were consulted,  singers like Robert Goulet… and, absent  from all the casting headlines of the time,  the balladeer from the Welsh valleys. Oliver Tobais, The Stud, 1977. …
Continue reading Sir Tom Jones

1. – Helena Kallianiotes, Five Easy Pieces, 1970. Not even the mighty Jack Nicholson could persuade Janis  to be  Palm Apodaca,  the hitch hiker from hell:  “I mean, I’ve seen filth that you wouldn’t believe. Ugh! What a stink! I don’t even want to talk about it.”  Helena later managed Nicholson’s main household for more …
Continue reading Janis Joplin

Vincent Perez, The Crow: City of Angels, 1996.  First choice to succeed the late Brandon Lee in the second Crow film (Lee had died on the first) – opposite another singer, Tori Amios. She passed, too. Jackson Browne, The Simpsons #311:Brake My Wife, Please, TV, 2003. Since its 1989 birth, the yellowtoon family Simpson smashed records for …
Continue reading Jon Bon Jovi

Whitney Houston, The Bodyguard, 1991.      For the body he guarded, hot singer Rachel Marron, star-producer Kevin Costner  ran through ten chanteuses.  From Madonna  and  Janet Jackson to Olivia Newton-John and Dolly Parton.    By 2009, Jett was the subject  of a movie – played by  Kristen Stewart in  the film  about her band, …
Continue reading Joan Jett

Bud Cort, Harold and Maude, 1971.   Elt’ must have heard how director Robert Altman warned his protégé: “Harold could typecast you for years:” In fact, Cort’s next movie was not until 1977. Christopher Reeve, Superman, 1977. George Burns, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1977.    Director Michael Schultz, said Rolling Stone critic Paul Nelson, …
Continue reading Sir Elton John

  Rex Ingram, The Green Pastures, 1935.     First, Warner Bros acually wanted De Lawd to be played, oh, no, by Al Jolson in his blackface. Then, Paul Robeson refused point-blank. Finally, the nearly four-minute trailer was devoid of black faces, just a lot of white film-makers, and a long shot of black extras. …
Continue reading Al Jolson

Nelson Eddy, Naughty Marietta, 1934.       With one big MGM hit behind her – The Merry Widow – McDonald started behaving like her other self, The Iron Butterfly, and the soprano made it clear that she wanted Jones as her next partner. Impossible!  He was having having A Night at the Opera with …
Continue reading Allan Jones

  Tamara Dobson, Cleopatra Jones, 1972.  Hot off being the pimp Goldie in The Mack earlier that year, Max Julien created a kind of Black female James Bond in the titular – and very tall – Federal agent.  She was like a sister or cousin to Pamela Grier’s Coffy – also dreamt up by Julien. …
Continue reading Grace Jones

Tupac Shakur,Poetic Justice, 1992.    Despite the ravishing  poet (called Juastice) being played by Janet Jackson, Ice said he was not  ready for love scenes just yet.  Three of John Singleton’s stars were murdered during the next 13 years:  Lloyd Avery II at age 36 in 2005, Dedrick D Gobert, 22, in 1994 and Tupac Shakur …
Continue reading IceCube

1. – Val Kilmer, The Doors,  1991. The singer with Australia’s  band, INXS, was one of only two genuine rock stars envisioned for Jim Morrison as the bio-pic passed through film-makers galore  before being made by Oliver Stone – who first heard the US band in a Vietnam bunker. 2. – Elias Koteas, Crash, 1997.  …
Continue reading Michael Hutchence

  Michael Jai White, Spawn, 1996. All the obvious heavyweights – Cuba Gooding Jr, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes, Tony Todd (Candyman), Denzel Washington  and Tarantino favourites Samuel L Jackson, Ving Rhames – were seen for the movies’ first black superhero. (The later filmed Black Pantherwas born first, in a 1966 comic – 26 yearsbefore Spawn).  …
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David Bowie, Labyrinth, 1985.    For (alas) his final film as a director, Muppeteer-in-Chief Jim Henson wanted a rock star as the Goblin King Jareth, ruler of the mystical world that, as Chicago critic Roger Ebert put it, was just out of sight of ordinary eyes… Exec producer George Lucas wanted  Jackson –  a nose …
Continue reading Michael Jackson

  Dennis Waterman, Up The Junction, 1968.      Said Mick’s lover of the hour, Marianne Faithful: “It didn’t seem quite right for him.” Malcolm McDowell, A Clockwork Orange, 1971.    Rod Taylor, The Deadly Trackers, 1972.     Or, Riata (Spanish for rope) when maverick auteur Samuel Fuller was making it for Warners.Samand studio fell out… …
Continue reading Sir Mick Jagger

William Powell, Dancing in the Dark, 1949.   Way back in October 1945, the singer was due to be the conceited movie idol turned  lowly talent scout  – to be directed by the appalling Gregory Ratoff. Terrible film proving that only MGM could make musicals, not  Fox.  Haymes, third  of Rita Hayworth’s four husbands (she was …
Continue reading Dick Haymes

1. – Ben Carruthers, Universal Soldier, 1971. “The film  George  Lazenby gave up 007 for… “More likely the first offer he had on being dropped from Bond.  Rock guitar god Hendrix was set to co-star  but  died before shooting started. Same story seven years on when Bruce Lee died  when  Lazenby had  signed to make …
Continue reading Jimi Hendrix

Madeleine Stowe, We Were Soldiers, 2002.      All set as Lieutenant-Colonel Mel Gibson’s wife.  And then she wasn’t.  Natalie Portman, Cold Mountain, 2003.     The singer finally made her movie debut as one of The Stepford Wives (poor girl!)  in the 2004re-hash.  Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  0

Stacey Dash, Clueless, 1994.      New Jersey’s hip-hopper Hill was also seen for Dionne, best friend of Alicia Silverstone’s Cher… who explains they  “were both named after great singers of the past that now do infomercials.”  Hill went to the same school as Zach Braff, up for Josh Thandie Newton, Beloved, 1997.   It took mighty media …
Continue reading Lauryn Hill

Jimmy Hunt, The Lone Hand, 1953.    According to 1952 Los Angeles Times news items,  the singer Chet Allen was seen for Joshua Hallock in  the Joel McCrea Western.  Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

Sheryl Lee Ralph, Oliver & Company, 1987.   “Oliver Twist with dogs” is how Disney labelled the toon. More like Oliver Twist AS dogs… The elegant Whitney was on the short list to voice Rita, the Afghan hound. Also elegant. But two other singers got gigs. Billy Joel voiced Dodger and Bette Midler played Georgette.  Guest …
Continue reading Whitney Houston

1. – Al Martino,   The Godfather, 1971.  Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

Ann Blyth, The Helen Morgan Story, 1956.    For six months, Warner Bros scanned some 32 possible Morgans, including: Dani Crayne, Susan Hayward, Jennifer Jones plus singers Grayco (Mrs Spike Jones), Doris Day, Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, Jaye P. Morgan, Patti Page, Keely Smith. And even fashion model Nancy Berg. Morgan’s friends and fans were furious …
Continue reading Helen Grayco

1. – David Carradine, Bound For Glory, 1976.   Arlo proved he had something in the film of his song, Alice’s Restaurant, 1969, and was therefore considered to play the biopic of his father: Woody. “He was a wencher, a drinker, he’d walk out the door disappear and leave his wife and babies for months,” said …
Continue reading Arlo Guthrie

Lori Petty, Tank Girl, 1995.     “I just like the fact that I had something personally to do with the Spice Girls,” director Rachel Talalay told the Den of Geek website. “We had these great open casting calls which were an absolute blast – and that’s where the Spice Girls first met. In London …
Continue reading Geri Halliwell

Nino Castelnuovo, Les parapluies de Cherbourg, France, 1964.    Jacques Demy’s first idea was the French Elvis, and his singer-wife Sylvie Vartan.  Hardly a couple for Michel Legrand songs. Anyway, “they didn’t want to do it, neither one or the other.” Victor Lanoux, La vieille dame indigne (The Shameless Old Lady), France, 1964  . In what …
Continue reading Johnny Hallyday

Richard Chamberlain, The Three Musketeers, 1973.      Starring, who else, but the Beatles. Of course, of course! They rejected the “old standby” in 1967. George would have been the religious Aramis. Of course, of course! The project lost the boys but won their director: Richard Lester. Of course, of course! Ian McKellen, The Lord …
Continue reading George Harrison

Melody Anderson, Flash Gordon, 1980.    UK director Nicolas Roeg’s choice for Dale Arden was among the changes made by Dino De Laurentiis and new helmer Mike Hodges.  “It upset me,” Nic told me, “inasmuch as I wanted to do it.  But if someone doesn’t want to give you the bread, you can hardly be …
Continue reading Debbie Harry

Michelle Pfeiffer, Grease 2, 1981.      The Texas-raised singer was hardly interested in going back to high school at age 25. Also offered Stephanie Zinone, two other singers, Kim Carnes and Debbie Harry were… 34. . Pfeiffer was 23 with a surprise quirky quality said director Patricia Birch. To say nothing of an outstanding …
Continue reading Lisa Hartman

Jamie Foxx, Miami Vice, 2005.      For the rapper with a  teardrop tattoo by his left eye, his concert touring meant he couldn’t  even make a  test, let alone a full movie as Tubbs.  Quentin ‘Rampage’ Jackson, The A Team, 2009.     Another unnecessary film  of a series that everyone had forgotten… To …
Continue reading Game

1. – Dolly Parton,   The Best Little Whorehouse   in Texas, 1982.   Country singers Gayle and Barbara Mandrell were considered for Miss Mona Stangley until it went (obviously) to the self-described “blend of Mother Goose, Cinderella, and the local hooker.”    Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  0

The Yardbirds, Blow-Up, 1966.     New York’s (indeed, Andy Warhol’s)   Velvet Underground band was the first choice of Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni for the Swinging London club scene.   Except he wanted a guitar-smashing climax as made famous by Pete Townshend of The Who. But The Who refused their invite, as did Eric Burdon (who smashed nothing …
Continue reading The In Crowd

  Treat Williams, Hair, 1978.       Unbelievable! Broadway’s hippy hit was once planned as a movie vehicle for Bee Gees brothers Barry and Maurice Gibb (as George Berger and Woof). With another sibling, Robin, they ruined Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, instead. Antonio Banderas, Evita, 1996.     Producer Robert Stigwood’s l979 …
Continue reading Barry Gibb

France Anglade, Le plus vieux métier du monde (US: The Oldest Profession), France-West Germany-Italy, 1966.     “I’m not an actor,” said the French singer of songs for kiddies. . She proved it in 1965 as one of Jean-Luc Godard’s “children of Marx and Coca-Cola” in Masculin féminin.  She  lost other films because she looked …
Continue reading Chantal Goya

Herve Presnell, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, 1964.   When Shirley MacLaine was set as Molly, director Charle Walters shot a silent test of Goulet “to see if he could look awkward in a dinner jacket.”   Not easy for the singer   called   “an 8 x 10 glossy” by Judy Garland.   He passed his test but lost the …
Continue reading Robert Goulet

Patrica Kass, And Now Ladies and Gentlemen, France, 2002.   .Insipid realisateur Claude Lelouch’s problem – apart from another of his dullard scenarios that lost him at least two   leading men   – was finding a singer who could act. Sort of.    Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

Billie Burke, The Wizard of Oz, 1938. Binnie Barnes, The Man From Down Under, 1943.   A British music hall institution, “Our   Gracie”   rejected her fellow Northerner Charles Laughton.   Never happy in films, she needed a live   audience. Her Fox deal proved disastrous except for the records books – Darryl Zannuck’s $200,000 for four films …
Continue reading Dame Gracie Fields

Chiwetel Ejiofor, American Gangster, 2007.      The rapper auditioned for Huey, the brother of the 1970 Manhattan drug kingpin, Frank Lucas. Rob Lawrence Brown, Odd Thomas, 2012.      Change of Shamus Cocobolo in  the life of clairvoyant fry cook Anton Yelchin (his parents forgot to add T for Todd).  With monickers like these, …
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Dean Martin, The Young Lions, 1957.    Fox won rights to Irwin  Shaw’s WWII novel in 1951 and ran through three directors before letting the project be totally ruled by the MCA talent agency. Second director Mark Robson suggested Tony Curtis as the Jewish GI, Noah Ackerman.  No, said MCA, reserving the other German and …
Continue reading Eddie Fisher

Dooley Wilson, Casablanca, 1942.    Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

Victoria Abril, La lune dans le caniveau (US: The Moon in the Gutter), France-Italy,  1982.     The sole flaw in Paris casting icon Dominique Besnehard – he knew zilch about black actresses. He ran to veteran singers – Holloway, 50, an Bertrice Reading, 49  – for  Depardieu’s young lover, Bella. He then found Diahnne Abbott. But …
Continue reading Nancy Holloway

Jean Desailly, La Peau douce, France, 19 64.     Theatre star Desailly did not like the film, the role, the subject – “or me,” said French realisateur François Truffaut. And vice-versa. According to his editor Claudine Bouche, Truffaut detested Desailly for being physically maladroit. Only reason he didn’t book Dutronc, was that the singer …
Continue reading Jacques Dutronc

Charlie Ruggles, Melody Cruise, 1932.   When Eddy to continue his current concert tour, RKO borrowed Ruggles from Paramount – being as like Eddy as a pea was to an orange. Ronald Colman, The Prisoner of Zenda, 1936.    The earlier idea  of  a Jeannette MacDonald-Nelson Eddy musical stumbled with the questioning of Eddy’s ability to …
Continue reading Nelson Eddy

Angela Lanza, The Perez Family, 1995.   “At her audition,   I wanted to cast Angela on the spot for her first film,” says Indian film-maker Mira Nair.   “But the studio wanted a famous Latin singer to cash in on. So, I went through the motions,   wheeling and dealing   Gloria Estefan   (and Gloria Trevi,   Celia Noel, etc), …
Continue reading Gloria Estefan

George Chakiris, West Side Story, 1961.     Demonstrating a total ignorance of cinema, producer Walter Mirisch saw Presley as the New York Romeo… supported   by   Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon and Fabian!   The equally movie-ignorant Colonel Parker might have agreed to Elvis as Tony but not for the studio insisting on the Elvis clone Fabian …
Continue reading Fabian

Richard Beymer, West Side Story, 1961.        Among all the   guys seen for   Jets and Sharks, only two were singers. Darin and…   Elvis! Kevin Spacey made no mention of this in his biopic about the singer with a dodgy heart. Rock Hudson, Send Me No Flowers, 1963.   Jayne Mansfield, The Wayward Bus, 1957.  …
Continue reading Bobby Darin

Ellen Greene, Little Shop of Horrors, 1986.     The suits had the temerity to talk to Lauper and Madonna when the orignal 1982 off-off-Broadway (and London) Audrey was alive and well and just too brilliant to ignore.   So director Frank Oz did the right thing. And signed her. Helena Bonham Carter, Sweeney Todd: The …
Continue reading Cyndi Lauper

The Ramones, Rock ’n’ Roll High School, 1979. Difficult to find a band to (almost) close the movie in The Roxy concert. Todd Rundgren wasn’t keen, Cheap Trick and Tom Petty also passed. (Rungren alone regretted it). Director Allan Arkush took his problem to a contact at Warner Bros Records. Devo was suggested. And Van Halen  – …
Continue reading Devo

1. – Jonathan Pryce, Evita, 1996. An extremely bright   idea from UK director Alan Parker.   About Domingo,. Madonna confided to her diary, January   27, 1996:   “After speaking to me for 20 minutes, he   said he regretted saying no. Latin men were put on this earth to charm women.   And torture them.”    Birth year: Death …
Continue reading Placido Domingo

Alain  Souchon,  L’Eté meurtrier (UK/US : One Deadly Summer),  France, 1982.    It was either  because of Adjani or the stupid name  of her lover – Pin-Pon – but all The Guys  passed.   Depardieu, Dewaere,  Gérard  Klein and singer Yves Duteil. Adjani suggested another singer… who (like Duteil_ would not take any shine  off her.   But they …
Continue reading Yves Duteil

  Leonard Whiting, Romeo and Juliet, UK-Italy, 1967. The first version where the stars were close to the ages of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers.  Leonard Whiting and Olivia were 15 and 17. At MGM, circa 1935, Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer were, ridiculously, 43 and 35!  Italian director Franco Zeffirelli saw 14 Juliets but only eight possible …
Continue reading Phil Collins

Chris Rock, Lethal Weapon 4, 1998.    One sequel is enough! Roger Ebert’s Chicago Tribune review made #1 a hit way beyond Warner’s meagre expectations He felt #4 was mere out-takes… All the usual black suspects – Combs (aka Puff Daddy in those day), Eddie Murphy, Will Smith, Chris Tucker, Larenz Tate – rejected the …
Continue reading Sean Combs

Tim Curry, It, TV, 1989.    Cooper sounded an inspired idea for the evil clown, Pennywise.  Except, of course, with him aboard the 30th of Stephen King’s staggering 313 screen credits  would have become The Alice Cooper Show.  Tim  Curry almost left the two-parter, worrying about too many hours in make-up as he’d suffered as Darkness …
Continue reading Alice Cooper

1. – Tupac Shakur, Juice, 1992. Rapper Shakur won Bishop from rapper pal Criss,  after the way he flung a chair about in his audition for the directing debut of Spike Lee’s cinematographer Ernest R Dickerson. Shakur was murdered in 1996. Usual occupation: Singer Casting Calls:  1

Nona Gaye, The Matrix Reloaded, 2003; The Matrix Revolutions, 2003.    The first female rapper to win a platinum record auditioned for Zee following the air-crash death of singer Aaliyah. Her replacement was her friend, Marvin Gaye’s daughter, another R&B singer, who’d debuted as the second wife of The Greatest in Ali, 2001.  Birth year: …
Continue reading Da Brat

  Paul Walker, The Fast and The Furious,  2000.    Christian Bale  and Mark Wahlberg were also considered for Brian O’Connor. Walker went on to the  sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious and won a huge  cult following with  chapters 4, 5, 6. He was 40 and  filming #7 when he was killed in an off-duty …
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Ethel Merman, Follow The Leader, 1929      One Broadway showstopper fcr another… The booming Merman was an eleventh hour substitute for Etting.  I love the final comment from the New York Times critic of the day, Mortdaunt Hall (and  this is 1929, remember): “Adroitly directed by Norman Taurog, who has made the most of …
Continue reading Ruth Etting

Emmy Rossum,  The Phantom  of the Opera, 2003.       No luck for the Welsh teenager with the sensational voice and, as she grew up, a body to match. Anne Hathaway, Katie Holmes, Keira Knightley, Kate Winslet  and Catherine  Zeta-Jones  were also on the list for Christine Daaé.    Birth year: Death year: Other …
Continue reading Charlotte Church

Lana Morris, Trouble in Store, 1953.       A star (singer) at eleven, Pet fought the UK’s Rank Organisation (and her father) to act her age (21) and  refused being yet another comic’s innocent girlfriend (in Norman Wisdom’s debut). She was suspended until  doing  much the same with The Gay Dog. Then, Rank dropped …
Continue reading Petula Clark

Micko Westmoreland, Velvet Goldmine, 1998.  The Brit pop star was US director Todd Haynes’ first choice for Jack Fairy in the Citizen Kane-ish take on David Bowie’s relationship with Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. r.    Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  0

Kim Darby, True Grit, 1968.    John Wayne suggested the anorexicCarpenter after loving her  effervescence when he was judging a TV talent show.  Producer Hal B Wallis  wanted a name or an actress, not an unknown singer.   He looked over many possible Matties: Geneviève Bujold (who became Wallis’ Anne of the Thousand Days), Mia Farrow …
Continue reading Karen Carpenter

Peter Greene, The Usual Suspects, 1994.    Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones, Al Pacino, Charlie Sheen, James Spader, Christopher Walken were also up for Redfoot, the LA fence.  The New Jersey actor  got the part – but no credit.   Birth year: 1932Death year: 2003Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

1. – The Ramones, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, 1979. Difficult to find a band to (almost) close the movie at The Roxy concert. Cheap Trick wasn’t keen (it was a Roger Corman production, not Fox). Legend insists that after getting only $25,000 for the movie, the Ramones had to play Californian gigs to help …
Continue reading Cheap Trick

1. – Judy Carne, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, TV, 1968-70. Many tested, few passed for what became known as The Sock It To Me Girl in Dan Rowan and Dick Martin’s rapid fire comedy show. 2. – Madonna, Evita, 1996. Xavier Cugat’s Spanish singer wife was run  up the flag pole as directors switched from …
Continue reading Charo

  Faye Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde, 1966. Vanessa Redgrave, Camelot, 1966. For his last hurrah after 45 years running Warner Bros, head bro Jack L Warner – having learned his lesson the hard way by ruining My Fair Lady – wanted the original Broadway stars to reprise their 1960 roles of King Arthur and Guenevere. …
Continue reading Cher

Chill Wills, Tulsa, 1948.    Times is hard…! Producer Walter Wanger  couldn’t afford Dana Andrews or Robert Mitchum for his hero  Brad Brady. And following his hit song in Wanger’s Canyon Passage, 1945, Carmichael was similarly too expensive for sidekick Pinky Jimpson.   Birth year: 1899Death year: 1981Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

  Irene Papas, The Guns of Navarone, 1960.   The opera diva turned  down the small role of Maria Pappadimos in the WWII thriller set in her Greece. Callas later made her screen  acting debut  six years later in  a French tele-movie, Adieux de Tabarin. Her most famous (sixth and last) screen role was as Medea, …
Continue reading Maria Callas

Sammy Davis Jr, Porgy and Bess, 1958.    Columbia’s hated  czar, Harry Cohn, wanted  – incredibly – to do it in black-face.  With FredAstaire  as  Sportin’ Life opposite Al Jolson’s Porgy and Rita Hayworth’s Bess!  Said the Gershwin brothers:  “Get outa here!”  Columbia gave up and sold its rights to Fox who wanted a Sportin’ Cab …
Continue reading Cab Calloway

Madonna, Evita, 1996.      Giving up on The Material Girl in 1994, director Oliver Stone voted Carey – about as successful in movies as Madonna!But, eventually,UK director made the musical. Thandie Newton, For Colored Girls, 2010.     Pregnant. “You’re kidding me?” said director Tyler Perry. “It’s five days before she has to go …
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1. – Joely Fisher, I’ll Do Anything, 1994. James Mason’s singer daughter-in-law (she wed Morgan in 1986) had some tough fights over the role of Female D Person. Joely really pulled it off in a James Brooks musical (released sans songs). Film  flopped and  did nothing to remove The  Perpetual Comma that Brandon Lee told …
Continue reading Belinda Carlisle

1. – David Carradine, Bound For Glory, 1976.  Director Hal Ashby chose the experimental singer to play Woody Guthrie. However, before shooting started, Buckley ODed on heroin at age 28.  Birth year: 1947Death year: 1975Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  0

Patsy Palmer, EastEnders, TV, 1992-2011. Before joining the Spice Girls group, Bunton tested for Bianca Butcher (née Branning, ex-Jackson) in the ikonic BBC soap. Lori Petty, Tank Girl, 1995. “I just like the fact that I had something personally to do with the Spice Girls.” director Rachel Talalay told the Den of Geek website. “We …
Continue reading Emma Bunton

The Yardbirds, Blow-Up, 1966.     New York’s (indeed, Andy Warhol’s) Velvet Underground band was the first choice of Italian maestro Michelanglo Antonioni for the Swinging London club scene.   Except he wanted a guitar-smashing climax as made famous by The Who’s Pete Townshend. But The Who refused their invite, as did Burdon, the Animals’ singer (who smashed …
Continue reading Eric Burdon

1. – Amanda Donohue, Castaway, 1986.  Director Nicolas Roeg loved singers in his films (David Bowie, Art Garfunkle), but this weird Brit chart-topper balked at the nudity of the couple on a desert isle.  She wrote him a soundtrack song: “Be Kind To My Mistakes.”    Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting …
Continue reading Kate Bush

Michelle Pfeiffer, Grease 2, 1981.     The LA singer of her own songs (Bette Davis Eyes) was hardly interested in going back to high school at age 34. Idem for Debbie Harry Nor Pat Benatar at 28. Pfeiffer was 23 with a surprise quirky quality said director Patricia Birch. To say nothing of an …
Continue reading Kim Carnes

Charles Aznavour, Les Metamorphose des Cloportes, 1965.     The extraordinary Belgian singer refused so late that shooting had already begun. Producers ran to Aznavour – singing at the Oiympia. “I can’t do both,” he said. They pleaded, arranged special times for him “and one of Zanuck’s aides came to talk money – and I got …
Continue reading Jacques Brel

Billie Burke, The Wizard of Oz, 1938. Verree Teasdale, I Take This Woman, 1938.      AKA I Re-Take This Woman as the MGMess went through three directors – Josef von Sternberg, Frank Borzage, WS Van Dyke – and, therefore, continual cast changes. Madame Maresca, for example, went from Von Sternberg’s choice of Brice to Borzage’s Ina …
Continue reading Fanny Brice

Emmy Rossum, The Phantom of the Opera, 2003.     Divorce! Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1990 plan for Joel Schumacher directing the original West End stars blew up when the composer divorced Brightman and the returns for Evita were non-ecstatic. Schumacher’s career then took off and he was not available for another 24 years. When the Opera …
Continue reading Sarah Brightman

  Georges Guétary, An American In Paris, 1950.   The former Danish boxer – and Rosalind Russell’s father-in-law – must have been surprised to  discover he was  on the list for Henri drawn up by co-directors Vincente Minnelli and Gene Kelly. Brisson had not made a movie  since Ship Café in 1934. He was ruled out …
Continue reading Carl Brisson

Jérémie Elkaïm, Marguerite et Julien, France, 2015.    Scripted for François Truffaut in 1971 by his regular scenarist Jean Gruault after the director’s collaborator, Suzenne Schiffman, unearthed the tragic romance of siblings Julien and Marguerite de Ravalet, executed on Decemebr 2, 1603, for adultery and incest. That was the problem. Too many other films about …
Continue reading Julien Clerc

Marilu Henner, Hammett, 1981.    Producer Francis Coppola spent so long messing around with Wim Wenders’ US debut that by the time it was re-shot,  his marriage to Ronnee was over and so was  her role…  Indeed,  “Francey” took so long (re-shooting the whole damn thing)   that  Henner’s  romance with  the guy who played Dashiell …
Continue reading Ronnee Blakley

Val Kilmer, The Doors, 1991.  During the 20-year convoluted struggle to put Jim Morrison’s short, empty life on film, Charlie Sheen contacted Jerry Hopkins, co-writer of the leading source book, No One Gets  Out of Here Alive, to set up a movie starring the Irish U2 rocker.  Seven producers and $2m of development  hell later, …
Continue reading Bono

Elvis Presley, Speedway, 1968.  With Colonel Tom Parker forever refusing any films with balls and substance (“just songs and girls”),  Elvis was even pushed into a Sonny & Cher cast-off. Warren Beatty, Dick Tracy, 1989.   Before Beatty was Dick and the director (he owned the rights to his boyhood idol!), Bono  and the missus, Cher, had …
Continue reading Sonny Bono

  Mark Wynter, The Haunted House of Horror, 1969.      The role of  Gary was quite Ziggy in Michael Armstrong’s first psychedelic scenario. While Wynter was as straight as  Pat Boone Murray Head, Sunday Bloody Sunday, 1970.   His new US  manager, with the very UK name of Ken Pitt,  said the name David Jones  …
Continue reading David Bowie

1. – Claude Giraud, Un  roi  sans divertissement,  France, 1963. Playwright and film-maker  Marcel Pagnol cancelled plans to film another favourite Jean Giono tale when Brassens refused it. The singer had never enjoyed the delays between takes of his debut,  Rene Clair’s Porte de Lilas, 1957.     Birth year: 1921Death year: 1981Other name: Usual occupation: …
Continue reading Georges Brassens

Craig Douglas, The Painted Smile (US: Midnight Can Be Deadly), 1962.     Routine little, 60 minute UK gangster tale that needed a song in a nightclub scene. Considering it was merely a supporting feature, it was  cheeky of  director Lance Comfort  to offer the spot to the boys from Liverpool. His producer balked – …
Continue reading The Beatles

Chicago, Clear History, TV, 2013.    I’ll let Larry David tell it; it’s his film.    “My first choice was the Bee Gees,” he told the UK Sunday Times’ Stephen Armstrong about a subplot of his very Curb Your  Enthusiasm-esque HBO film. “But then a Bee Gee died. So we were down to one Bee …
Continue reading Bee Gees, The

Lori Petty, Tank Girl,  1995.    “I just like the fact that I had something personally to do with the Spice Girls.” director Rachel Talalay told the Den of Geek website. “We had these great open casting calls which were an absolute blast – and that’s where the Spice Girls first met.  In London there …
Continue reading Victoria Beckham

Glenn Close, The World According To Garp, 1981.    Variety said Pat turned down the role of Garp’s Ma to concentrate on her music. Anyway, director George Roy Hill had just seen Close in Broadway’s Barnum. Michelle Pfeiffer, Grease 2, 1981.     The Brooklyn singer was hardly interested in going back to high school …
Continue reading Pat Benatar

Margaret Blye, The Italian Job, 1969.     Or, Maggie Blye at the time.   Either way, no room for  the Liverpool songthrush.    Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls:  1

Lea Thompson, Howard The Duck, 1985.    In the mix for rocker Beverly Switzler were singer-pianist Amos (“the piano plays me!”), Paula Abdul, Kim Basinger, Jodi Benson, Phoebe Cates, Sarah Jessica Parker and the well-named Lori Singer. Thompson nailed it! “And I got to be a rock star. Everybody wants to be a rock star, right? …
Continue reading Tori Amos

Russ Tamblyn, West Side Story, 1961.  Singers or non-singers? The show’s Broadway genius Jerome Robbins suggested  making stars  out  of  unknowns and threatened to quit once nervous producer Walter Mirisch demanded  top names… Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon,  Fabian or even Elvis!!! Joby Baker, When the Boys Meet the Girls,1965.   Anka’s away!  On  tour. So he …
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Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis, 2012.    The Coen brothers saw Casey Affleck, Michael Fassbender and Ryan Reynolds for Davis on the Greenwich Village music scene  Plus  the much closer  more acceptable Scott Avett (of North Carolina’s Avett Brothers band) and US  singer-songwriter Conor Oberst.  Isaac was really an actor who’d been a musician – lead …
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The Ramones, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, 1979.   Difficult to find a band to (almost) close the movie in The Roxy concert. Rungren wasn’t keen, Cheap Trick and Tom Petty also passed. (Rundgren alone regretted it) Director Allann Arkush took his problem to a Warner Bros Records contact. Devo was suggested. No, OK, Van Halen? …
Continue reading Todd Rundgren