- Betty Grable, The Dolly Sisters, 1944. Alice Faye refused to play sisters again with her Fox rival Betty Grable (after Tin Pan Alley, 1939) and quit the studio! Grable was pregnant and an impatient studio actually thought of replacing its new box-office queen in the fictional biopic of Yansci and Roszika Deutch, going from Budapest to the Ziegfeld Follies, as Jenny and Rosie Dolly – played by real sisters, indeed twins, Constance and Doris Dowling. June Haver, The Pocket Grable, became Rosie. A semi-sequel plan forGrable and Rita Hayworth as The Duncan Sisters died when Columbia refused to loan Rita.
- Teresa Wright, The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946.
- Ava Gardner, The Killers 1946. Producer Mark Hellinger knew the ex-circus acrobat called Burt Lancaster was right for Ernest Hemingway’s hero – Ole “Swede” Andreson- from his screen test with Constance. However, Kitty was Ava in the movie.
- Colette Marchand, Moulin Rouge, 1951. Director John Huston chose the ex-Goldwyn Girl as Marie Charlet, but made the film with Marchand – In what proved an Oscar-nominated debut. She would play only five more screen roles. Constance and her younger sister, Doris, were the first Hollywood actresses to split to Euro-careers. Doris won the most memorable role, opposite Silvana Mangano in Riso amaro (Bitter Rice, 1948. Gina Lollobrigida made one film with Doris and two with Constance. The French Marchand was Oscar-nominated and won 61 other screen roles, including, of course, Agnès Varda’s Cléo de 5 à 7, 1961
Birth year: 1920Death year: 1965Other name: Casting Calls: 4