-
Claudette Colbert, The Sign of the Cross, 1932 Pola Negri, Norma Talmadge, and latterly Elissa Landi were also seen for Nero’s wife. In fact, even two weeks before shooting was to start on June 18, director Cecil B DeMille still not found his Empress Poppaea… until noticing Colbert strolling by his office. He opened his window to call out: “Claudette, how would like to play the wickedest woman in the world. “I’d love it!” She was not so happy about her milk bath – turning to cheese under the hot lights. Earlier on, Allen and Charles Starrett had been cast as Poppaea and Marcus Superbus (!). Wed to Raymond Massey at the time, the Brtiish Allen is the mother of their actor-children Anna and Daniel Massey.
- Frances Drake, I Take This Woman, 1938. The top star, Spencer Tacy called it Won’t Somebody Take This Woman? As the major MGMess went through three directors – Josef von Sternberg, Frank Borfage, WS Van Dyke – each making various cast changes. And so, Adrienne Allen’s Lola was totally reshot with… wait for it… Frances Drake. (The New Yorker was born Frances Dean).
Birth year: 1907Death year: 1993Other name: Casting Calls: 2