Michael Rennie

  1. Keiron Moore, The Naked Heart, 1949.        Trevor Howard was Rennie’s first replacement in 1946 until the film was totally revamped, dropping producer Alexander Korda’s new British “star” Barbara White (for Michele Morgan) and all the Canadian location footage.
  2. Yul Brynner, The Ten Commandments, 1954.
  3. David Hedison, The Fly, 1958.       “What…? You mean   my head will   be covered up for   most of the picture!”
  4. Rod Taylor, The Time Machine, 1959.        Until studio interference, producer-director   George Pal always plannd to use the star from his favourite project, The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1951.
  5. Anthony Quinn, Heller In Pink Tights, 1959.        Every Brit (well, except Laurence Olivier!) wanted to make a Western. So, Rennie bought the rights two years earlier and formed a production company with the Western’s author, Louis L’Amour. They desired Olivier opposite Anne Baxter or Marlene Dietrich as the Heller – a rare blonde trip for Sophia Loren! – in the comedy oater about a stage troupe battling Indians, lawmen, creditors and clichés in the 1880s. (No relation to the Fox musical refused by Marilyn Monroe in 1954: The Girl in Pink Tights).   
  6. Darrell Zwerling, Doc Savage: Man of Bronze, 1975.    When Columbia aprroved Chuck Connors as Lester Dent’s hero in 1965, Rennie would have been in his crew as Brigadiewr-General Theodoere Marley “Ham” Brooks, according to the Hero Histories, website. The rights battle was not settled, however. As the cast, screipt  and locations were on standby, they were churned into an instant Western, Ride Beyond Vengeance.

 Birth year: 1909Death year: 1971Other name: Casting Calls:  6