- Sally Blane, Angel’s Holiday, 1936. Hudson had to drop Pauline when assigned to She Had to Eat. Frances Drake (!) was asked to substitute before the role re-routed to Blane. Among Hudson’s 112 screen roles was Natalie Wood’s mother in Rebel Without A Cause, 1955.
- Gloria Stuart, Island in the Sky, 1937. Hudson and Brian Donlevy became the going steady team of Stuart and Michael Whalen – as a DA who thinks a guy on Death Row deserves his fate, and the secretary proves him wrong.
- Rita Hayworth, Only Angels Have Wings, 1938. Howard Hawks had his pilots. Now he needed… an ex-lover for Cary Grant. Between November 30-December 2, Hawks shot tests (opposite Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Sig Ruman, etc) with his #1 choice, Linda Winters (by Citizen Kane, she was called Comingore), Rochelle Hudson (she made 111 screen roles in 37 years) and the unknown Beverly Holden. Then, following appeals from George Chasin, Hitchcock’s young agent, a certain Miss Hayworth won… “because the camera loves her face.” But… “ I needed help from Cary with Rita. extremely self-conscious, not at all spontaneous and at this point in her young career, not a particularly good actress.”
- Joan Fontaine, The Duke of West Point, 1938. When her co-star, UK ice-skating champion Jack Dunn, suddenly died of the rare blood disease (Tularemia), Hudson quit tbe movie. Fontaine and Louis Hayward substituted. Reasonably well.
- Jean Rogers, A Stranger in Town, 1942. The original titles – Supreme Court Justice and Mr. Justice Goes Hunting – gave the game away. Visiting duck-hunter Joe Grant, helping corruption fighting Richard Carlson’s bid for mayor, is really a Supreme Court Judge. Rogers succeeded Hunt was his secretary falling for… oh, you guessed?
Birth year: 1916Death year: 1972Other name: Casting Calls: 5