- Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins, 1963. OK, chimney sweep Bert had to sing and dance it up. But he also had to be at home with a Cockney accent. Only a few US stars could manage that. Sadly, Van Dyke was not among them. Nor were Fred Astaire, Cary Grant or Danny Kaye…UK author PL Travers didn’t like how books were Hollywoodised and took 25 years to accept Walt Disney’s plan for her governess. She then found the result “vulgar and disrespectful” – and, like most Brits, loathed Van Dyke’s Bert. But then she knew nothing about cinema, having suggested the august (and aged) Alec Guinness, Rex Harrison, even Laurence Olivier – To sweep, or not to sweep! Plus Richards Burton and Harris, Peters O’Toole and Sellers. (Only Sellers made sense). Disney wanted Stanley Holloway – busy reprising his My Fair Lady stage role. Loving the movie but feeling miscast, Van Dyke nominated Jim Dale (a Disney star in the 70s) and agreed with Travers about Ron Moody… who would have frightened not only the horses but the kids, as well.
- Terry Scott, Carry On Up The Jungle, 1970. Dale had no wish to be Ugh, the Jungle Boy (ie Tarzan). Producer Peter Rogers called his series: “Same film, different title.” This time the full title was: Carry On Up the Jungle or The African Queens or Stop Beating About the Bush or Show Me Your Waterhole and I’ll Show You Mine.
- Tom Baker, Doctor Who, TV, 1974-1981.
- Richard Kiley, The Little Prince, 1974. Richard Burton, Frank Sinatra… they all passed.
- David Hemmings, Islands in the Stream, 1977. First offered after his Broadway smash in Moliere’s Scapino. His verdict was somewhat obtuse: “A drunken writer, nothing to do!“
Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins, 1963. OK, Bert had to sing and dance it up. But he also had to be at home with a Cockney accent. Only a few US stars could manage that. Sadly, Van Dyke was not among them. Nor were Fred, Cary Grant or Danny Kaye. Of the others in the mix, Dale and Ron Moody would have been less execrable.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5