- Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday, 1952. Frank Capra (and George Stevens) wanted Liz Taylor, William Wyler liked Suzanne Cloutier (the future Mrs Peter Ustinov) for the runaway Princess Ann. A further 28 actresses were seen, the good, bad and risible – like the current sex-bombs Yvonne De Carlo Diana Dors, Gina Lollobrigida, Sylvana Mangano, Shelley Winters. Apart from, perhaps, Vanessa Brown, Mona Freeman and Wanda Hendrix (even though her real name as Dixie), the Hollywood hopefuls – singer Rosemary Clooney(George’s aunt), Jeanne Crain, Nina Foch, Janet Leigh, Joan Leslie, June Lockhart, Dorothy Malone, Patricia Neal, Barbara Rush – were soon discarded, lacking the stature of Euro-royalty. Idem for the Euros – Swedish Bibi Andersson, and the French Capucine, Leslie Caron, Jeanne Moreau. Which left several perfect Brits Claire Bloom, Joan Collins, Glynis Johns, Kay Kendall, Deborah Kerr, Angela Lansbury, Moira Shearer, and, of course, Audrey, … soon gracing the Time cover, hailed by the New York Times as a “slender, elfin and wistful beauty, alternately regal and childlike” with, added Variety, a “delightful affectation in voice and delivery, controlled just enough to have charm and serve as a trademark,” (And, Indeed, it did for evermore).
- Angie Dickinson, Rio Bravo, 1958.
- Anna Karina, Lo Straniero/The Stranger, 1967. When the Italian maestro, Luchino Visconti, was planning it with Alain Delon.
- Ursula Andress, Casino Royale, 1966.
- Elsa Martinelli, Maroc 7, 1976. Wisely avoided some eminently forgettable Pinewood nonsense.
- Romy Schneider, Clair de femme (US: Womanlight), France-Italy-West Germany, 1979. Producer George-Alain Vuille promised any film of the Roman Gary novel to Capucine. Paris réalisateurCosta-Gavras inbsisted opon Romy. And then achieved the impossible by messing up a second teaming of Schneider and Yves Montand – sublime in Claude Sautet’s Cesar et Rosalie, 1972. Yet here, they never occupy our minds, said Chicago critic Roger Ebert, “because the director is standing in the way.”
Birth year: 1928Death year: 1990Other name: Genevieve LefebvreCasting Calls: 6