- Mamie Van Doren, Yankee Pasha, 1953. Universal contract girls tested with the star, Jeff Chandler. Mari lost it. Mamie tells it…. Jeff preferred Mamie for Lilith, “the sexy, silly, pretty little chatterbox of a slave girl given to Jeff as a gift by the sultan,.. And what slave girl wouldn’t have loved to be a gift to Jeff Chandler? With that big square jaw and broad shoulders, salt-and-pepper hair, what’s not to love?”
- Angie Dickinson, Rio Bravo, 1958. Not having made a movie for four years, director Howard Hawks had no girls under contract to play Feathers. So, The Grey Fox examined the Hollywood field – from the blatant Mari and Sheree North to the subtle Jane Greer and Julie London. And fell for the long-legged Angie, already discovered by his star, John Wayne, for I Married A Woman and his production of Gun The Man Down. Mari’s last role before her early death was opposite Wayne’s McLintock!in 1963.
- Shelley Winters, Saskatchewan, 1953. Universal then kept her out of its own Western (with the Mounties!) so she could co-star in the awful Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, 1953…. as the Venusian Queen Allura. Poor girl! Al Capp copied Mari’s great figure (36x25x36 like Marilyn) as his model for Stupefyin’ Jonesin his L’il Abner” comic -strip. She made headlines where her name was found in gangster Johnny Stompanato’s “little brown book” Alongside those of June Allyson (!), Anita Ekberg, Zsa Zsa Gabor and of course, Lana Turner – whose daughter, Cheryl, killed him when he attacked her mother.
- Denise Darcel, Vera Cruz, 1954. When the star – and producer – Burt Lancaster made it known he wanted Mari to be Countess Marie Duvarre in what has become known as the first spaghetti Western. Universal refused to loan he out. With a few F-bombs thrown in – they didn’t match Marie’s epithets. Worse followed. She was dumped by Universal after re-treading Marlene Dietrich’s 1939 role in a Destry Rides Again re-tread. That basically ended her cinema career. Thereafter, most of her 63 credits were on TV, including one chapter of the short-lived Casablanca series; Charles McGraw was Rick.
Birth year: 1923Death year: 1970Other name: Casting Calls: 4