- John Derek, The Ten Commandments, 1954.
- John Ronane, King Rat, 1964. Blacklisted Hollywood writer Carl Foreman (High Noon) decided to film James Cavell’s tough book about his three years as a WWII prisoner of the Japanese. With the finest UK actors: new guys Albert Finney, Peter O’Toole, veterans Trevor Howard, John Mills. He then felt he had no more to say about war after The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Guns of Navarone and The Victors. UK writer-director Bryan Forbes made it his Hollywood debut, bravely side-stepping Marlon Brando, Tony Curtis, Steve McQueen, Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra for the Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf find, George Segal – as the titular wheeler-dealer-fixer-conniver who all but ends up running the jungle camp.
- Omar Sharif, Funny Girl, 1968. Lucky escape for TV’s Ben Casey, 1961-66. (Likewise for Sydney Chaplin, Terence Cooper, Tony Curtis). As Roger Ebert saw it: “There has rarely been a more wooden male performance in a musical.”
- Bruce Dern, The Cowboys, 1972. “Because I’m the only actor who ever killed John Wayne in a picture,” said Bruce, “producers have pegged me for a villain. I’d worked with him before, a little role in The War Wagon. He didn’t OK me then – too small a part for him to worry about. But he was concerned about the guy who was the first to nail him, you know. Another actor [TV’s former Ben Casey] almost played the role. I think Wayne intervened a little bit for me.”
Birth year: 1928Death year: 1996Other name: Casting Calls: 4