- Ann Blyth, One Minute to Zero,1951. Meadows tested for Linda at age32. Claudette Colbert was playing her, at 48, when she got pneumonia – and was subbed by Blyth, all of…23. That’s Hollywood!
- Janet Blair, Public Pigeon No 1, 1956. Hollywood Reporter reported that real-life sisters Jayne and Audrey Meadows would be sisters in what became Red Skelton’s final film. Except, Edith and Rita weren’t siblings…! Audrey was the best-loved Alice Kramden, Jackie Gleason’s wife in TV’s The Honeymooners. Gleason rejected her at first for being too pretty – rather insulting to the first and third Mrs K, Pert Kelton and Sheila McCrae.
- Elizabeth Taylor, The Flintstones, 1994. Comedy king Jackie Gleason’s long-suffering wife in TV’s The Honeymooners, 1951-56, was director Brian Levant’s first idea for the new character of Fred’s mother-in-law, Pearl Slaghoople. “But I thought if we got Liz, it’d be special!” It wasn’t.
Birth year: 1926Death year: 1996Other name: Casting Calls: 3