- Mae Clarke, Waterloo Bridge, 1930. ”I was under contract to Universal and James Whale wanted me,” recalled Hobart. Then I was told they weren’t going to pick up my option and I was so mad I refused to do it. I wanted to do it and wish I had.” Instead Myra was played by Mae Clarke, proving she had more in her 124 film career than just having James Cagney pushing a grapefruit into her face. (He next dragged her along the floor by her hair in Lady Killer, 1932). Worse was to come for Rose…. Lee J Cobb named her as a Communisty Party member. Not true. She was blacklisted all the same. For eleven years! Why? For being, she thought, an Actors Lab board member and being in the Deep Are the Roots play about miscegenation.This was the third film of Bette Davis. “I had about four lines … I yearned all during shooting to play Myra. I could have.” Robert Sherwood’s play was inspired by meeting an American girl in London, who had arrived with an American musical troupe, stayed on as a hooker. MGMade two other versions. With Vivien Leigh, 1940, and Leslie Caron, 1955 – tonly one with happy ending.. And, indeed, happier beginning, Caron’s Gaby was not a hooker.
- Ellen Drew, Isle of the Dead, 1944. Shooting was shuttered when Boris Karloff had back surgery. Once he was fit for filming, his co-stars were scattered all over in different films. Awaiting their availability, Karloff and director Val Lewton knocked off a quickie, The Body Snatcher! Drew took over Thea when Hobart was never able to return to the Isle… She was, of course, still visible in some of her original long-shots
Birth year: 1906Death year: 2000Other name: Casting Calls: 2