- Trevor Howard, The Passionate Friends [US: One Woman’s Story), 1949. David Lean’s first film after his Oliver Twist triumph started under Ronald Neame. Lean changed everything from the kid-glove treatment of Ann Todd (soon to be his lover) to the script and last minute casting of Howard. “David really disliked me,” explained Goring, “and didn’t want me in the film.”
- Cyril Cusack, The Elusive Pimpernel, 1950. Michael Powell loved him! Even so, actor and director shared doubts about a third, successive French accented role, after A Matter of Life and Death and Red Shoes. The answer was in Powell’s previous film – and his next – Cyril, an Irishman “of steel, an actor of subtlety and power.”
- John Fraser, Doctor Who #115: Logopolis, TV, 1981. Age apparently, didn’t matter. The Monitor was 60 but producer John Nathan-Taylor’s usual suspects ranged from Harry Andrews at 77 to Hywel Bennett at…37! Plus Maurice Denham, 72; Marius Goring, 69; Peter Cushing, 68; Bernard Archard, Michael Gough, 65 ; Nigel Stock, 62; Geoffrey Bayldon, 57; William Lucas, 56; Frank Finley, 55; Barry Foster, Frank Windsor, 54; John Fraser, 50; Peter Wyngarde, 48. This as the episode that Brian Epstein would not let The Beatles appear in. But he OKed Top of the Pops footage of Ticket To Ride.
Birth year: 1912Death year: 1998Other name: Casting Calls: 3