- Jean Seberg, Saint Joan, 1956. Although a trifle old at 26 for the 19-year-old Maid of Orleans, the tyrannical producer-director Otto Preminger was intrigued by the sexy Dakatoian – mainly in TV at the time: Alcola Theatre, General Electric Theatre, Matinee Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars. Instead of Joan, she made Shootout At Medicine Bend with Randolph Scott.. Preminger also considered such unlikely Joans as Ursula Andress, Julie Andrews, Anne Bancroft, Claire Bloom, Carol Burnett, Joan Collins, Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Mary Tyler Moore, Kim Novak (from Otto’s Man With The Golden Arm, 1955), Debbie Reynolds, Maggie Smith, Liz Taylor and… Mamie Van Doren!
- Sarita Montiel, Run of the Arrow, 1956.
“I think I tested for that movie with Brian Keith.” Yes, but with Brian’s brother Robert – and maverick auteur Samuel Fuller was really testing the cameraman, Joseph Biroc! Sam kept Angie to dub Montiel – and then booked Angie for his next outing, China Gate, 1957. “I guess Sam was already seeing something he liked. Sammy was robust, energetic… I was almost an amateur when China Gate came along; if he could’ve afforded anyone bigger or better, I’m sure he would’ve taken them. But he trusted me. I did have that thing called maturity. I never played the schoolgirl or an immature person; I always played a mature girl or woman – and one who was unafraid. Cautious, maybe, but not afraid.” - Claire Kelly, Party Girl, 1957. They must have craved Cyd Charisse’s better and titular role, but Angie and Doris Dowling found themselves in the same frame for the wife of crippled Robert Taylor – consigliere for mobster Lee J Cobb. In his final MGMovie, Taylor’s performance is probably his finest – and Cobb’s seems like a first draft for Robert De Niro (and hs pool cue) in The Untouchables… 30 years later.
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Janet Leigh, Psycho, 1960.
“It was a big joke,” Hitchcock told BBC’s Monitor in 1964. “I was horrified to find some people took it seriously.” (Yeah, sure, Alfie). Aided by his wife, Alma, Hitch took his time selecting his most famous murder victim, Marion Crane. There was Angie Dickinson…, who would have her own big shower moment 19 years later in Dressed To Kill. Of course she did, Her director was the eternal Hitch copier, Brian De Palma. Which is why he also used a body double). Also checked out: Martha Hyer, Shirley Jones, Hope Lange, Piper Laurie, Lee Remick, Eva Marie Saint (from his previous North By North West) and Lana Turner. They all missed the most infamous shower scene of 78 camera angles and 52 cuts in its three minutes, shot during December 17-23, 1959, with Leigh and body double Marli Renfro. “Just 52 pieces of film stuck together,” said Hitchcock. Dickinson had her own big shower moment 19 years later in Dressed To Kill. Of course she did – her director was the infernal Hitch copier, Brian De Palma. Which is why he also also used a body double… and then made a film, called just that. Alexandre O Philippe made a better one, 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene, 2016, telling us all we ever wanted to know about what made Jane Leigh take baths for the rest of her life. As to ace credits designer Saul Bass actually directing the sequence, that’s a whole other story. Leigh said he didn’t. He told me he did! - Natalie Wood, West Side Story, 1961. Angie was seven years older than Natalie. So this made as much sense as Burt Reynolds as Tony!
- Carroll Baker, The Carpetbaggers, 1964. Angie would have been so much more… erotic.She had so many stories she could have told but simply dropped the odd tidbit like the role she most regretted refusing was Rina Marlowe, based on Jean Harlow, in the first of New York producer Joseph E Levine’s three snitty/snotty movies about Hollywood – followed by Harlow, 1964 (also with Baker), and The Oscar, 1965. Each one worse than the precedent.
- Shirley Jones, Bedtime Story, 1963. Or, King of the Mountain, when the comedy’s con-men went from Cary Grant-Rock Hudson to Cary Gant-Tony Curtis to Rock Hudson-Warren Beatty to finally – incredibly! – David Niven-Marlon Brando. Likewise the girl in the middle changed from Angie Dickinson, Mitzi Gaynor, Hope Lange or Sheila MacRae to Shirley, the recent support actress Oscar-winner for Elmer Gentry.
- Anne Bancroft, The Graduate, 1967.
- Romy Schneider, La piscine, France-Italy, 1969. Angie, Leslie Caron, Delphine Seyrig, Monica Vitti, Natalie Wood were unavailable or wanted their favourite cameraman or refused swimsuit scenes. (Difficult with that title). Alain Delon said: “What if I ask Romy?” For her, it was a gift from her god. He re-launched his on-off lover’s fading career. She was now a wife and mother, while he had one lover in the film (Madly), another visiting (Mireille Darc) before making a movie about (and with) the three of them (Madly, 1970). Realisateur Jacques Deray never gave up on Angie and set her opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant in Un home est mort, 1972.
- Susan St James, McMIllan & Wife, TV, 1971-1977. As his film career never recovered from Seconds and Darling Lili, Rock Hudson turned to what he termed “illustrated radio” with script, casting and director approval from the Once Upon a Dead Man pilot get-go. For example, he selected Susan over Jill Clayburgh, Angie Dickinson and Diane Keaton for Police Commissioner McMillian’s missus, Sally. “She put him at ease.:” said producer (and Thin Man fan) Leonard Stern. “She had a sense of humour… and she seemed to be the right age.” (Oh really? She was 21 years younger than Hudson!). Susan quit after ’75-76 season over a salary dispute (what else?) and was killed off in a plane crash. The show was the least successful one-third of the NBC Mystery Movie series, alongside Peter Falk’s Columbo and Dennis Weaver’s McCloud. (Columbo is still playing on in France as I write this in May 2022). Angie’s Sergeant Police Woman Pepper Anderson lasted one year longer, 1974-1978.
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Ali MacGraw, The Getaway, 1972. When director Peter Bogdanovich (and his lady, Cybill Shepherd) fell out of the mix, The one-man wild bunch Sam Peckinpah moved in and wanted his Cable Hoguestar Stella Stevens, Angie Dickinson or Dyan Cannon as Steve McQueen’s missus. Except Paramount boss Robert Evans wanted a change of image for his missus. “I ca see it now – McQueen & MacGraw.” Huge mistake. Ali ran off with her co-star. They were wed during 1973-1978, McQueen & McQueen.
- Linda Evans, Dynasty, TV, 1981-1989. She had done her TV stint as Police Woman Pepper Anderson, 1974-1978, and felt she was a role model for the good. As for Krystle Grant Jennings Carrington, hell she could have phoned her in. Linda only became feisty when Joan Collins joined the show and kicked ass like (at her suggestion) a female JR Ewing.
- David Selby, Falcon Crest, TV, 1981-1989. Angie pulled out of negotiations (or had heard about lead harridan Jane Wyman’s tyranny) and so, Wyman’s long lost daughter turned out to her long lost son.
- Stephanie Beacham, The Colbys, TV, 1985-1987. Anothert soap offer… The Dynasty spin-off tried hard to win Angie over to ABC. First, half the suits offered the role of Sable, wife of the Charlton Heston’s billionaire patriarch…
- Katharine Ross, The Colbys, TV, 1985-1987. …while the other half thought her better suited as Heston’s lover, Frankie – Lady Francesca Scott Colbyss, The Colbys, TV, 1985-1987. …while the other half thought her better suited as Heston’s lover, Frankie – Lady Francesca Scott Colby.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 15