- Jean-Pierre Mocky, Paradise des pilotes perdus, France,1949. The well-named director, Mocky, was a one-man New Wave before la nouvelle vague began. In his earlier acting days, he was something ofpre-Delon Alain Delon.(Visconti tookshineto them both). Here, he easily trumped such tough opposition as Maurice Ronet and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Neither one ever made a Mocky film – he usually played his own leads. Thistitle was reversed in the US: Hell For Lost Pilots.
- Jean-Marc Bory, Les amants/The Lovers, France, 1958. Ronet was the obvious choice as “Momo” had starred in auteur Louis Malle’s first feature, Ascenseur pour l’echafaud, the year before.Ronet had since taken too much of a liking of the grape… not helping his looks. After considering Jean Sorel andJean-Louis Trintignant, Malle gave the film – and la scandale – to his lover, Jeanne Moreau, opposite… Jean-Marc Boring!(Malle and Ronet later made their classic, Le Feu follet, in 1963).
- Omar Sharif, Lawrence of Arabia, 1961.
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Les Biches, 1968. Headache for French New Wave icon, Claude Chabrol. His leading man was delayed on the Jean Seberg’s Les oiseaux vont mourir du Perou, and his best replacement option was Trintigant – ex-husband of the film’s leading lady who was now Mme Chabrol, Stephane Audran. Before a bed scene, he simply toldthem: “I never ask never actors to do anything I can’t do, myself”!
Birth year: 1927Death year: 1983Other name: Casting Calls: 4