- Walter Abel, Raintree County, 1956. O’Connell and indeed, Alec Guinness, were in the mix for roles opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift. Abel proved an able TD Shawnessy.
- Lief Erickson, The Carpetbaggers,1963. The emphasis, of course, was on Howard Hughes, er, no, Jonas Cord Jr. But every mixed-up boy as an alcoholic father and O’Connell ws just too nice a guy for the role. Enter: Erickson. In the first of New York producer Joseph E Levine’s three snitty/snotty movies about Hollywood – followed by Harlow, 1964, and The Oscar, 1965. Each one was worse than the precedent.
- Fred Clark, When the Boys Meet the Girls,1965. Change of MGM stalwarts for Bill Dennis, from O’Connell to Clark for MGM’s second version of the Gershwin brothers’ 30s musical, Girl Crazy. The new title made it sound like some Elvis rubbish. And Arthur had already suffered one of those, Kissin’ Cousinns with, Lordy! Lordy! two Elvises (ie double the rubbish!!) in 1963.
Birth year: 1909Death year: 1981Other name: Casting Calls: 3