- Andrea Leeds, Stage Door, 1936. The future mother of Ann Archer, was in the mix for the tragic would-be actress in the Katharine Hepburn/Ginger Rogers classic. Leeds won an Oscar nod.
- Laraine Day, Calling Dr Kildare, 1939. Marjorie lost Nurse Mary Lamont in the debut of MGM’s medico series – seven movies, leading to being his bride in Dr Kildare’s Wedding Day, 1941. (Day was just seen in a photo in the eighth).
- Diana Barrymore, Between Us Girls, 1941. The good Lord was plucked out of a stage play by director Henry Koster and given a Universal deal to start with what had been called Love and Kisses, Caroline. “But Diana had just come to Universal and the Barrymore name got her the part instead.” And the good Lord was stuck a several Bs and a Smilin’ Jack serial in her contract’s short year, during which time…
- Louise Allbritton, Who Done It, 1942. “I was tested for an Abbott and Costello picture, but they gave it to Louise,” she also told Mike Fitzgerald. “I thought they didn’t like me. Now I see I was too young at the time. I wasn’t the pushy, mature type that Louise played so well in the film.” Lord didn’t lose everything; she won 76 screen roles in her 51-year career and is best remembered as the gorgeous (second) wife of Danny Thomas on TV’s Make Room for Daddy, 1957-1964,
- Hillary Brooke, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, 1942. Basil Rathbone was Universal’s Holmes in this version of Conan Doyle’s His Last Bow (third of his 13 Baker Street movies).
- Janet Blair, Broadway, 1942. George Raft kept refusing scripts for films that never happened (Tango, Marriage of Inconvenience, etc). But he could hardly flee from playing… himself! In a heavily expurgated version of his speakeasy days as dancer, fighter, lothario and best friend of New York hoodlums. His co-dancer was supposed to be Lord, a new Universal signing, but the Uni-suits voted Blair.
Birth year: 1918Death year: 2015Other name: Casting Calls: 6