- John Derek, The Ten Commandments, 1954.
- James Dean, Giant, 1955.
- John Gavin, Psycho, 1960. Considered as Alfred Hitchcock planned a TV-style casting.Hitch also saw Robert Loggia Leslie Nielsen, Cliff Robertson, Tom Tryon, Stuart Whitman. Gavin won. Because, as a Universal contractee, he was… the cheapest. His favourite was Stuart Whitman and, he kept Rod Taylor for his next one: The Birds. And called Gavin… The Stiff! Hardly news as Gavin had made two Alfred Hitchcock Hourepisodes: Run For Doom, 1963, and Off Season, 1965.
- Murray Hamilton, The Graduate, 1967.
- Robert Ryan, The Wild Bunch, 1968.
- Peter Boyle, Hammett, 1981. About three weeks wasted of Keith’s life – five years (and 40 script drafts) for German director Wim Wenders trying out Coppola’s version of Hollywood. Shooting started February 4, 1980, wrapped in mid-April. “We never finished,” said Wenders. Coppola wanted to edit first and then find an ending to bracket the story. Simple! Except he lost it – making One From The Heart while his entire Zoetrope company was falling around his ears. To establish the chosen ending, Russ Thomas wrote an additional storyline that led to Coppola totally re-shooting Wenders’ movie. Neither version was worth anyone’s time – on-set or in cinemas. And taking over Hammett’s ex-Pinkerton crony Jimmy Ryan from Keith, Boyle was – this once – quite terrible.
Birth year: 1921Death year: 1997Other name: Casting Calls: 6