- Mia Farrow, Hurricane, 1979. Fleeing to Paris after facing jail for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl, director Roman Polanksi had to quit the Dino De Laurentiis production all set with a previous underage mistress. Swedish regissor Jan Troell booked Roman Polanski’s Rosemary!
- Elizabeth McGovern, Ragtime, 1981. Nasty craved the role of Evelyn Nesbit from the EL Doctorow novel, but couldn’t manage the accent. When dragging James Cagney out of retirement, at age 81, for the film, Czech director Milos Forman told him: “You can have any partyou want – including Evelyn Nesbitt!”
- Rosanna Arquette, The Executioner’s Song, 1982. Photographer turned producer-director Lawrence Schiller found his own, all-American Kinski in the superb Rosanna – for his astonishing tele-movie from Norman Mailer’s Puilitzer Prize-winning account of the life and death of Gary Gilmore, first man to be executed (by firing squad at his own insistence!) since the US government reinstated capital punishment in 1976.
- Elizabeth McGovern, Lovesick, 1983. “First time we met, we both had uncomfortable vibes about it, but the second time was OK.” After it had flopped? But then so did Kinski’s later pairing with a lovesick Dudley Moore: Unfaithfully Yours.
- Jennifer Jason Leigh, Flesh + Blood, Holland-Spain-US, 1984. La Kinski lost to Rebecca De Mornay – immediately dropped by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven for continually insisting her boyfriend should play Steven. The lover was… Tom Cruise.
- Charlotte Lewis, Pirates, 1985. Roman Polanski’s original 1983 crew of Jack Nicholson, “Nasty” Kinski and himself co-starring and directing just never attracted investors. Three years later, we all saw why.
- Amy Irving, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, TV, 1986. Was Anna Anderson really the Grand Duchess Anastasia, the (unlikely) sole survivor of the execution of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and his entire family at Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918? And did anyone care who played her Kinski or Irving? Not after the way Ingrid Bergman portrayed the mystery claimant in 1956. (DNA tests on her death, proved ghat Anderson was not Anastasia. She just believed it). Irving was so taken with Christian Bale’s screen debut at age 12 that she suggested him to her then-husband, Steven Spielberg, for Empire of the Sun, 1986. A star was born. And he won an Oscar at 37 in 2011.
- Dalila Di Lazzaro, Paganini, Italy-France, 1988 .According to his unbelievable memoirs, Klaus Kinski and daughter were stuck in Rometraffic whenshe burst into tears, convinced he didn’t love her.(Not asmuch as her sister, Pola,that’s for sure, judging by her incest claims). Nonsense, says he, he has this wonderful part for her in isnext film. Except she never played it. This was his 135th, last and most outrageous screen role (about the similarly outrageous 19th Century devil-violinist). His wife and son – Debora Caprioglio and Nikolai Kinski – played his wife and son. So, just as well that “Nasty” didn’t become… how did he put it…ah yes… “the young woman Paganini desires with wild passion, a woman who is herself obsessed with Paganini.”
- Wendy Gazelle, Triumph of the Spirit, 1989. Enter her period of triumphant decisions…
- Valeria Golina, The King’s Whore, France, 1990. “Nasty” walked in to pick up Isabelle Adjani’s lead and just as swiftly walked out again.
- Andie MacDowall, Hudson Hawk, 1991. Sharing great intuition with Isabelle Adjani, Valeria Golina, etc.
- Mathilda May, Cerro Torre: Schrei aus Stein/Scream of Stone, 1991. The rose between two expert climbers.
- Isabella Ferrari, K, France, 1997. Ill health meant French rock star Patrick Bruel’s partner became the blonde from Italian director Ettore Scola’s Roman d’un jeune homme pauvre.
- Jean-Hugues Anglade, RPM, 1997. Tarantino compadre Roger Avary wrote the script – for Kinski, Daniel Auteuil, Yun-Fat Chow, Matt Dillon, Tcheky Karyo, Dolph Lundgren, Vanessa Paradis, Tom Savini, Terence Stamp…
- Emmanuelle Seigner, RPM, 1997. … plusAvary’s Killing Zoe stars: Jean-Hugues Anglade andEric Stoltz.Avary then quit and Anglade’s character was churnedintothe woman originally set for Kinski.
- Maria Luisa Mendonca, Corazon Iluminado/Foolish Heart, Brazil, 1998. “This is my way of honouring the first people who opened up the way to my dreams,” saiddirector Hector Babenco. “And to honour the first love of my life.” So,he switched to Spanish dialogue and Brazilian actors about two months before shooting began – and thanked his original Euro cast in his credits. A cinematic first.
- Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds, 2008. For his German movie star Bridget Von Hammersmark, Quentin Tarantino has talks with German movie star Kinski before going with German movie star Kruger. He flew to Germany to persuade La Kinski to be the Dietrichesque star (and spy) in his Wild Bunch take on The Dirty Dozen. They couldn’t agree terms and, therefore, she missed nearly being strangled by the auteur..! When the Jew-hunting Colonel Hans Landa kills her, the hands around her throat were Tarantino’s. He wanted realism and felt German actor Christoph Waltz would go too far – or not far enough. QT told Kruger: “I’m gonna just strangle you, all right? Full on, I’m gonna cut off your air, for just a little bit of time. We’re gonna see the reaction in your face and I’m gonna yell cut.” Kruger decided this was reasonable (!) and let Tarantino choke her to the point of unconsciousness. Cut! Print! (But Waltz won the Oscar).
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 17