- Annie Girardot, Rocco I suoi fratelli/Rocco and His Brothers, Italy-France, 1960. “Un erreur fundamentale,” she agreed.”But I was young, timid, introverted, trying to cope with sudden fame.I rejected [Italian maestro Luchino] Visconti becauseof a very cruel rape scene.”Instead, she was Cleopatra opposite Gordon Tarzan Scott’s Cesare (!) in Una regina per Cesaere(US: A Queen For Cesar), 1962…never seen becauseFox bought it up to avoid any clash withthe Elizabeth Taylor epic. Visconti’s first producer wanted PP (or BB, Brigitte Bardot) – one of the reasons the maestro quit and persuaded Goffredo Lombardo to produce – with Visconti’s choice of Girardot.In the film’s best performance as Nadia, the hookerfalling for two brothers and, in real life, marrying one of them, Italian actor (and future politico) Renato Salvatore.
- Nancy Kwan, The World of Suzie Wong, 1960. So many rows… When Broadway’s Suzie, France Nuyen, and director Jean Negulesco were dumped, a “second global search for another Suzie” began in December 1959, covering: Grace Chang, Choo Oh (Miss Korea 1959), Lisa Liu, Nobu McCarthy, Charita Soliz, Luz Valdez. A total pr job! Kwan, from London’s Royal Ballet School, who succeeded Nuyen on-stage, had long been producer Ray Stark’s choice. Shamefully… Because she was looked less Eurasian. Why else had he also been looking at Petit, the French star of Les tricheurs and Julie la rousse and West Side Story’s Rita Moreno and Natalie Wood…?
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 2