- May Britt, The Hunters, 1957. The svelte new Swedish Fox import won Kris, wife of boozy USAF pilot Lee Phillips, from such stiff competition as Lange, Dina Merrill and Patricia Owens.
- Janet Leigh, Psycho, 1959. “It was a big joke,” Hitchcock told BBC’s Monitor in 1964. “I was horrified to find some people took it seriously.” Aided by his wife, Alma, Hitch took his time selecting his most famous murder victim, Marion Crane. Angie Dickinson, Martha Hyer, Shirley Jones, Hope Lange, Piper Laurie, Lee Remick, Eva Marie Saint (from his previous North By North West) and Lana Turner all missed themost infamousshower 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. Bass told me he did!
- Natalie Wood, West Side Story, 1961. Feeling pretty was not enough.
- 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.
Birth year: 1931Death year: 2003Other name: Casting Calls: 4