- Leslie Caron, An American In Paris, 1950. “Get a French girl!” Marge Champion told producr Arthur Freed when spurning his invite to go solo and play Lise Bourvier. He still tested Forrest, an MGM contract player, before Paris tests with Jeanine Charrat, Odile Versois and the ballerina Caron, recommended to Gene Kelly by future diector Roger Vadim. Or so he told me in Paris. “I knew her because she had been in dance class with my wife.” Madame Vadim was… Brigitte Bardot. (Betsy Blair, the then Mrs Kelly, said it was another American in Paris who recommended Caron: actor-singer Eddie Constantine).
- Joan Evans, Skirts Ahoy! 1951. Esther Williams heads three Waves at Chicago’s Great Lakes US Naval Training Centre in a film undecided about being swim-fest or a something more serious about women’s changing roles in society. An un-credited Debbie Reynolds almost stole the show – the reason she was put into Singin’ in the Rain.
Birth year: 1924Death year: 2015Other name: Casting Calls: 2