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Horst Buchholz, The Magnificent Seven, 1960. Hard to believe that the Western making new generation stars out of Bronson, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn, etc, was originally aimed in 1959 at old hats; Clark Gable, Glenn Ford, Stewart Granger. And just two newer guys: Anthony Franciosa, Dean Jones. All to be directed by Yul Brynner, already in a bitter dispute with Anthony Quinn and producer Lou Morheim over the rights to the source material: Japanese maestro Akira Kurosawa’s Shichinin no samurai/Seven Samurai, 1953. Brynner’s title was The Magnificent Six. Like re-making Ben-Hur as Ben-Herbie.
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George Hamilton, Act One, 1963. Other newcomers in the frame for the biopic about Broadway icon Moss Hart were Warren Beatty and Dean Jones. Hart was never Beatty’ obsession – that was Howard Hughes. And it took him 40 years to make his (weak) Hughes movie, Rules Don’t Apply, 2015.
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John Cassavetes, Rosemary’s Baby, 1968. Jones said knew he didn’t have a chance from the way director Roman Polanski “stared right through me.” Jones had better luck at Disney: Blackbeard’s Ghost, The Love Bug, The Shaggy DA, Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo.
Birth year: 1931Death year: 2015Other name: Casting Calls: 3