- Donna Reed, From Here To Eternity, 1952.
- Diane Foster, The Deep Six, 1958. Too tall, said short star and producer Alan Ladd. A year later she shared his Man in the Net – when Ladd also signed her actor-writer husband, Aaron Spelling, for his debut in the medium he would rule inthe 70s/80s, TV.
- Angie Dickinson, Rio Bravo, 1958.
- Shirley MacLaine, Career, 1958. Producer Hal Wallis booked Jones for Sharon Kensington but she fought to swop roles with MacLaine as the showbiz agent of Anthony Franciosa. Jones was a veritable lookalike of Wallis’ original choice. Bette Davis. One of the earliest Hollywood films to mention the Hollywood Black List – one of the three scenarists, Dalton Trumbo, had been a victim of that disgusting period.
- Vera Miles, Psycho, 1959. First reserve… After Grace Kelly went royal, mousey Miles was Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite even though she kept missing films he planned for her due, as Hitch might have put it, to her propensity for procreation. For Janet Leigh’s sister, he also considered Carolyn Jones, Eleanor Parker, Kim Stanley (not happy about working with Anthony Perkins)… and the inevitable unknown (then and now) Caroline Kurney. Carolyn – and her Bette Davis eyes – became famous, instead, as Morticia, matriarch of The Addams Family, TV, 1964-1966.
- Anne Baxter, Cimarron,1960. Dixie Lee went from Jones to Baxter, as if anyone noticed in the dust and noise of the 1889 Oklahoma land rush… 1,000 extras, 700 horses and 500 wagons and buggies. The first 1931 version won the Best Film Oscar. This one did not. The author, Edna Ferber, hated it. “This old gray head turned almost black during those two (or was it three?) hours.”
- Lana Turner, By Love Possessed, 1960. Early in the casting,, Carolyn Jones and John Saxon were nearly chosen for a mother and son. Despite Jones being a mere six years older than Saxon. They became Tuner and George Hamilton. Didn’t stop the movie being totally moronic.
Birth year: 1929Death year: 1983Other name: Casting Calls: 7