- Janet Beecher, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, 1938. The New York Times revealed how RKO wanted the real Irene to play her own mother in the biopic, but Irene (born Foote, good name for a dancer!) wasn’t into gimicks and simply continued in her thankless task of ($25,000) consultant for the the often exaggerated story of her dancing fame with her husband, killed in WWI at age 31, The Castles were more than the Fred ’n’ Ginger of their day. They were, it has to be acknowledged, better. (They played themselves, more or less, in The Whirl of Life, in 1914). Irene said Fred was perfect as Vernon, even fitting into his old Royal Flying Corps uniforms. She was annoyed with Ginger Rogers for not cutting her hair (or wearing a wig) in Irene’s famous Castle Bob cut – and how Walter Ash, their black protector in Paris, was churned into… Walter Brennan.
Birth year: 1893Death year: 1969Other name: Casting Calls: 1