- Jean Seberg, Saint Joan, 1957. Although a trifle old at 21 for the 19-year-old Maid of Orleans, the tyrannical producer-director-ogre Otto Preminger was intrigued by the London starlet – seen by then in seven movies, from Powell and Pressburger‘s Oh… Rosalinda! to Hell Drivers (with her first husband, David McCallum). Preminger also considered such unlikely Joans as Ursula Andress, Julie Andrews, Anne Bancroft, Claire Bloom, Carol Burnett, Joan Collins, Angie Dickinson, Sophia Loren, Shirley MacLaine, Mary Tyler Moore, Kim Novak (from Otto’s Man With The Golden Arm, 1955),Debbie Reynolds, Maggie Smith, Liz Taylor and…Mamie Van Doren!
- Tippi Hedren, The Birds, 1962. England’s Ireland and Hollywood’s Sandra Dee and Suzanne Pleshette were in the frame for the poor, bird-pecked Melanie until Alfred Hitchcock fell for Hedren in a diet drink commercial. Hitch gave her to a seven-year contract and a lot sexual; harassment. She made his next film, Marnie, 1963. And that was the end of his “new Grace Kelly.”
- Barbara Parkins, The Valley of the Dolls, 1967.
- Liza Minnelli, Cabaret, 1971. Confirming the fact that director Bob Fosse was here to stay (alas not for long enough), Cabaret stems from the Weimar Berlin stories by Christopher Isherwood who based his main character (he is the other one!) Sally Bowles on the British often naked teenage libertine flapper-actress-singer-writer Jean Ross – later Communist , Spanish civil war correspondent and lover of jazz pianist (later actor) Peter van Eyck. On her father’s advice, Minnelli (rejected for the Broadway production!) chanelled Louise Brooks as Sally. Isherwood said Liza was too talented such a “medicore” singer. Never said what he thought of her ten rivals: Ursula Andfess, Julie Andrews, Ann-Margret, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda, Jill Ireland (!), Glenda Jackson, Shirley MacLaine, Barbra Streisand, Brenda Vaccaro and Natalie Wood.
- Deborah Raffin, Death Wish III, 1985. Charles Bronson’s wife was too ill with ca ncer. Deborah “always wanted to work with Charlie,” stepped in but never saw the film. “Too much violence.”
Birth year: 1936Death year: 1990Other name: Casting Calls: 5