Nicholas Bal

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

Michael Cochrane, Doctor Who #120: Black Orchid, TV, 1982. Not a rehash of Sophia Loren’s 1958 Hollywood melo, but an adventure (with cricket!) in 1925 England for for Doc5 Peter Davison. In the baker’s dozen list for Lord Cranleigh were Ball, Cochrane, Michael Cashman, Christopher Cazenove, Keith Drinkel, Peter Firth, Nigel Havers, Paul Jerricho, Martin Potter, Jeff Rawle, Patrick Ryecart, James Warwick – and Simon Williams, often a lord or knight.
James Warwick, Doctor Who #121: Earthshock, 1982. In Doc5 Peter Davison’s Cybermen encounter, circa 2526, Scott was offered to Ball, Colin Baker (to be Doc6 in 1984-1986), Andrew Burt, Peter Firth, Del Henney, Martin Jarvis, Tim Pigott-Smith, Patrick Ryecart, Patrick Stewart, David Warner, Simon Williams. Plus Gareth Hunt (aka Mike Gambit) from TV’s 1976-1977 New Avengers. And the more successful 1977-1983 Professionals: Bodie and Doyle, aka Lewis Collins and Martin Shaw.
Martin Potter, Doctor Who #126: Terminus, TV, 1983. Director Mary Ridge had as many as 16 Eirak choices. Many of the usual suspects – Ball (first husband of Pamela Stephenson), Potter, Ralph Bates, Christopher Cazenove, Tom Chadbon, Ben Cross, Richard Heffer, avdrts, Martin Jarvis, Jeff Rawle, Patrick Ryecart, Simons Ward and Williams. Plus Sean Arnold, Jack Galloway, Nigel Havers, Paul Shelley.
Andrew Burt, Doctor Who #126 : Terminus, TV, 1983. Ball was also in the Valgard mix – with Burt, Tom Chabon, Paul Darrow, Michael Gothard, Del Henney, Bernard Hill, Patrick Mower, Patrick Stewart, Anthony Valentine, David Warner – to join Doc5 Peter Davison at the titular and leprous space station. Now read on…
Peter Firth, Lifeforce, 1984.
Chris Sullivan, Lifeforce, 1984.
John Hallam, Lifeforce, 1984.
Nigel Humphreys, Doctor Who #130: Warriors of the Deep, 1984. The 17 choices for Bulic were Richard Heffer, Roger Lloyd Pack, Bruce McCulloch, Terry Molloy (aka Davros), Stephen Rea, Carl Rigg, Donald Sumpter, Dave Warwick, Steve Yardley – plus Ball, Tom Chadbon, Maurice Colbourne, Paul Darrow, Michael Gothard, Tony Osoba, Edward Peel from the army of 203 candidates for just 18 roles in Lifeforce that year.
Ian McCulloch, Doctor Who #130: Warriors of The Deep, 1984. The 13 possible Nilsons were Peter Arne, Ian Holm, Dennis Lill, Alfred Lynch, Ian McKellen, Clive Merrison (BBC Radio’s Sherlock Holmes), John Normington plus five of the Lifeforce army: Ball, Tom Chadbon, Michael Gothard, Ronald Lacey, Edward Peel. Not the happiest of Whoverse shoots – and not just because Doc5 Peter Davison followed Doc2 Patrick Troughton’s golden rule. Three seasons and out.
Jack Galloway, Doctor Who #131: The Awakening, TV, 1984. Up for Joseph Willow in the Doc5 Peter Davison trip – Ball, Galloway, Alun Armstrong, Jim Broadbent, Tom Chadbon, John Hallam, Prentis Hancock, Del Henney, Roy Holder, Alan Lake, Terry Molloy (aka Davros), Edward Peel, Jeff Rawle, Carl Rigg, Paul Shelley, Donald Sumpter, Malcolm Tierney were familiar names from producer John Nathan-Taylor’s casting-cum-dart-board. He also voted for three newcomers: Geoffrey Bateman, Scott Fredericks, Ian Talbot.
Maurice O’Connell, Doctor Who #132: Frontios, TV, 1984. Seventeen possibles for Cockerill opposite Doc6 Peter Davison. O’Connell won. And lost. Most of his work was cut. Huge sigh of relief from… Ball, Alun Armstrong, Jim Broadbent, Tom Chadbon, Maurice Colbourne, Forbes Collins Michael Elphick, Michael Gothard, John Hallam, Del Henney, Philip Jackson, Alan Lake, Terry Molloy, Tony Osoba, Edward Peel, Donald Sumpter and Stephen Yardley.
Maurice Colbourne, Doctor Who #133: Resurrection Of The Daleks, TV, 1984. The scandalous 80s’ producer John Nathan-Turner wanted a name for Commander Lytton… like Meg Bennett, Brian Blessed, Kenneth Cope, Timothy Dalton (the future Lord President in #202: The End of Time, 2000), Leslie Grantham (not yet Dirty Den in EastEnders), Alfred Lynch, Clive Merrison (BBC Radio’s Sherlock Holmes), Terry Molloy, John Rhys-Davies, Maurice Roëves. Plus several soldiers from that the Lifeforce army: Ball, Steven Berkoff, Tom Chadbon, Paul Darrow, Michael Gothard, Don Henderson, Del Henney (he became Colonel Archer), Martin Jarvis, Michael Jayston, Edward Peel, George Sewell, Patrick Stewart, Anthony Valentine and David Warner. All 25 up for one role in a Doctor Who… Preposterous!
Del Henney, Doctor Who #133: Resurrection Of The Daleks, TV, 1984. Ball, Henney, Michael Byrne, Tom Chadbon, Peter Firth, Tim Pigott-Smith, Patrick Ryecart, Patrick Stewart, David Warner… most of the 11 actors up for Colonel Archer in the Doc5 Peter Davison adventure were Lifeforcers that year.
Christopher Gable, Doctor Who #135: The Caves of Androzani, TV, 1984. Mixed signals about Sharez Jek… Rock idols like David Bowie, Roger Daltrey, Mick Jagger and the rockerish Tim Curry – or actors Patrick Allen, Nicholas Ball, Steven Berkoff, Brian Cox, Christopher Gable, Michael Gambon, Julian Glover, John Hurt, Derek Jacobi, Martin Jarvis, Michael Jayston, Oliver Tobias. Ball was also up for…
Robert Glenister, Doctor Who #135: The Caves of Androzani, TV, 1984. When Christopher Gable was switched from Major Salateen to Sharez Jek, eight regular Whovians had to bow to newcomer Glenister – Ball, Ralph Bates, Christopher Cazenove, Tom Chadbon, Nicholas Clay, Brian Cox, Donald Sumpter. Ball was also up for…
Maurice Roëves, Doctor Who #135: The Caves of Androzani, TV, 1984. Whpbverse regualars Ball, Patrick Allen, Alun Armstrong, Steven Berkoff, Kenneth Cope, Michel Elphiock and outsider Warren Clarke were Stotz candidates. …
Stephen Yardley, Doctor Who # 138: Vengeance on Varos, TV, 1984. Not quite matching the Lifeforce movie’s 203 candidates for 18 roles that year but as many as 58 guys were seen for just three roles in this Doc6 Colin Baker episode – most of them being Lifeforcers! (They did not share the same casting director, so how did Cannon get hold of the Whoverse lists, hmm?) For example, there were 19 contenders for Arak… Ball, Yardley, Alun Armstrong, Jim Broadbent, Andrew Burt, Tony Caunter, Tom Chadbon, Peter Childs, Kenneth Cope, Paul Darrow, Tom Georgeson, John Hallam, Brian Miller, Tony Osoba, Edward Peel, Carl Rigg, Colin Scully, Donald Sumpter, Dave Warwick
Tom Chadbon, Doctor Who #143: Trial of A Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet, TV, 1986. Ball and Keith Barron were short-listed for Merdeen. Two years earlier, both actors (and Chadbon) had also been up for the same rôle(s) in the dreaded Lifeforce. The difference being Who was science fiction; Lifeforce was science fart. 19 – Tony Selby, Doctor Who #143: The Trial of a Time Lord, TV, 1986. A regular on producer John Nathan-Taylor’s casting lists, Ball was up for Sabalom Glitz in the the 14-episode past-present-future arc (hello A Christmas Carol!) that lasted the entire Season 23. At this juncture, the franchis was as much on trial as Doc6 Colin Baker
Don Henderson, Doctor Who #146: Delta and The Bannermen, TV, 1987. Chimeron Queen Delta escapes the baddies and heads to Disneyland (!) but arrives instead at… a Welsh holiday camp! Director Chris Clough chose Henderson for Bannerman boss Gavrok from producer John Nathan-Taylor’s familiar dartboard: Ball, Kenneth Colley, Michael Elphick, Michel Gothard, Bernard Hill, Jeremy Kemp, Ronald Lacey, TP McKenna, Clifford Rose, Peter Vaughan, Simon Ward, David Warner.
Edward Peel, Doctor Who #147: Dragonfire, TV, 1987. The usual suspects were up for Kane, the icy director of Iceworld, on the dark side of planet Svartos… Ball, John Alderton, Tom Chadbon, Michael Gothard, Ian Holm, David Jason, Ronald Lacey, TP McKenna, Clifford Rose, Simon Ward, David Warner. The Doc of the day was Doc7 Sylvester McCoy.
Simon Williams, Doctor Who #148: Remembrance of the Daleks, 1988. Despite the importance of the show – the 25th anniversary season opener – eleven actors passed on Group Captain Gilmore. Ball, Tom Adams, Tom Chadbon, Michael Cochrane, Lewis Collins, Del Henney, Ian Ogilvy, Tim Pigott-Smith, Neil Stacy, Simon Ward and James Warwick. Enter: Williams, aka James Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs, the Downton Abbey of its day – TV, 1971-1975. Despite 19 invites, none of Ball’s 85 credits (up to 2017) were in the Whoverse.

Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 10

WELCOME

to the films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories. Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making! And 2,777,633 words of spirited text.

The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars

HE SAID

“They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing any more.” – Adam Driver on no more Kylo Ren/Ben Solo ... Or is it that there will be no more Star Wars?

“I’ve been acting for 42 years and then you make one cocktail…” – Stanley Tucci on his new fame as a TV food and cookery expert.

"The point is it's very hard work and you have to really want to do it. It has to be something that you're burning to say." – Martin Scorsese on directing at 80 and thinking “possibly only one more”.

“Whether you are a competent actor, or an artist, is incidental. The main business is: you’re product. I had a hard time steadying myself against that stuff.” – Robert Redford.

“I’ve never done the same thing twice and how many people can say that?” – Tom Hanks… forgetting his two successive Oscars.

“I was so excited when I got the script for Silent Night. There’s no dialogue in the entire movie! I thought this would be very good for me because it lets me use my gifts for telling a story visually. – John Woo on his Hollywood comeback at 77.

“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father.” – Nic Cage.

“The man who invented mornings was no Christian.” – Peter O’Toole.

“The moustache did the acting.” – Anthony Hopkins on Howards End.

“It’s very difficult to get 100 million people to watch anything,” – writer-director Joe Russo.

“I gave him a little part in Looper, where he got to be shot in the face by Bruce Willis. He was just so overjoyed… like a little kid.” – director Rian Johnson on his father.

“I'm not an actor - and I've got 64 films to prove it!” – Victor Mature.

“If you cast it right, you don’t have to tell the actors what to do.” – John Huston.

CCC CLIPS

>> Name Game. James Spader really started something with his Blacklist series. He played – remember? – Reddington. And now we have Austin Butler and, Emma Stone are in making Eddington… and newbie Glenn Powell is Huntingdon, his tenth gig since Top Gun: Maverick. Perhaps it’s time to re-issue Carrington… with, among others, Steven Waddington!

>> Christopher Nolan says “No, sadly no – no truth to those rumours.” About making the next Bond. So, no Cillian Murphy as Jimbo, then?

>> Rolling Stone. Those Poor Things, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, are – naturally – in the next release of their Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s Emma’s third Yorgos collaboration. Most likely she’ll be in his next one, too, a re-make of the South Korean hit, Save the Green Planet. That was a comedy. But one can never categorise a Lanthimos experience. After all this one was first titled… And.

>> Taylor Swift’s guy, US football superstar Travis Kelce, is making moves on movies. To be as famous as Dwayne Johnson. Although people are now beginning to ask: Dwyane Whosis?

>>Brandon Routh was Superman back in the day. Today he’s in…Ick.

>> A star sure was born! Lady Gaga now getting $10million for Joker 2…

>> Sean Ono Lennon says Emma Stone should play his dad. Now there’s a thought. After all, Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan…

>> Sly Stallone has come this far without bothering with serial killers but that’s what he’s chasing in The Epiphany. He plays a retiring cop - what else at 78?

>> Thirty years after the first, Neve Campbell returns in Scream 7. She refused #6 over a money row…

>> Beatles director Sam Mendes made Skyfall and Spectre and another actor who has played John Lennon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, might yet be the next 007…

>> Ryan Gosling tipped to be join the Marvelverse. (They need him more than he them). Henry Cavill may follow – so definitely no Bond then. Not after Argylle. If anyone witnessed that accident, could they call the appropriate authorities.

>> Will Smith comes back (or so he hopes) in an almost suicide squad blasting drug dealers in Sugar Bandits… while Colin Farrell settles for just Sugar – back to his usual smoothie looks after The Penguin…

>> White Lotus 3 resurrects Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Charlotte Le Bon, Scott Glenn and introduces Patrick Schwarzenegger. But which one is going to flash…something?

CHAMPION'S LEAGUE

The battle for the top spot between Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson has – I think – come to an end. Recently, we‘ve seen Marlon leading Jack by one or two movies – and then, almost immediately, vice-versa. The gap is much wider now between the former Mulholland Drive neighbours. Latest research dug up more titles for Jack - Mr Mom, A Christmas Story, Striptease, The Bicentennial Man, Expend4bles – so that he is now safe (?) at the top of league with 177 films he chose not to make compared to Brando’s 172. But you know - you never know…

(The full list of their huge lists of bypassed films are not on their pages for now - one of the hassles being tackled in our - yes, very slow! – restructuring).

Marlon Brando – 177
Jack Nicholson – 172
Paul Newman – 160
Cary Grant – 150
Robert De Niro – 140
Tom Cruise – 135
Dustin Hoffman – 126
Mel Gibson – 118
Sean Connery, Al Pacino – 117

Highest Brit remains, as always, Sir Sean at 117… followed by Laurence OIivier, 93; Richard Burton, 87; Peter O’Toole, 79; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Peter Sellers, 72; Dirk Bogarde and James Mason, 68; Olivia De Havilland, 58; Vivien Leigh and Gary Oldman, 57.

Highest lady is Bette Davis, 97; Jodie Foster, 84; Michelle Pfeiffer, 81; Katharine Hepburn, 79; Julie Christie, 76; Meryl Streep, 75; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Nicole Kidman, 72: Jane Fonda, 70; Julia Roberts, 68.

Younger Brigade: Johnny Depp 108; Leo, 75; Jim Carrey, 70; Madonna, 62; Natalie Portman, 57; Aishawarya Rai Bachchan, 40; Bridget Fonda, 36: Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, 35; Jake Gyllenhall, 33: Ben Affleck, 31.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

A BOND MISS

Is Léa Seydoux now a spy…or, to be more polite, a talent scout for Eon Productions? 007’s girl in both Spectre and No Time to Die appears to assisting the (rather quiet) search for the next Jimbo. In La bête (The Beast), one of her many new French films, Léa co-stars with Hammersmith’s George MacKay - Sam Mendes’ find for 1917. He learned French for the film, so this may not be his last Paris booking.

As Gabrielle and Louis, they work extremely well together as star-crossed lovers in three time-lines: 1904, 1914 and 2044. And he looks the business in his retro tuxedo. ‘Twould be fascinating to cast an eye over her report for Barbara Broccoli’s eyes only. On verra as Léa (and now even George) would say. We’ll see.

SHE SAID

“You need your parents to set boundaries and hold you accountable and keep you away from, like, weird people.” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a child actor.

“I was so deeply in love with Bella, it terrified me not to live up to her as a character. I felt like I was failing her in the first week, and failing Yorgos [Lanthimos]. ). It was just difficult. I could talk to him about it, but I couldn’t talk to her about it. “ – Emma Stone on making Poor Things, leading to her second Oscar.

“Everything was so beautiful up on that screen. That make-believe world was much more pleasant than anything I was experiencing. I didn’t like reality. I wanted to be in the movies, even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen. My mother said, ‘you better learn to type,’ but I didn’t listen. Somehow, some way, thank you God, it all came true.” – Barbra Streisand, receiving lifetime achievement honour from the Screen Actors Guild.

“If I arrive at a moment in the history of cinema where I am legally obliged to have some kind of police on my set telling me what I’m allowed to do, I would rather stop filming sex scenes completely.” – French director Mia Hansen-Løve.

“I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothin’, I would never retire, I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage, someday, hopefully one I’ve written.” – Dolly Parton.

“Playing it safe doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere. You have to take chances. especially if you’re a black woman. You have no choice.” – Halle Berry.

“The more famous an actress becomes, the less she's allowed to eat.” – Lana Turner.

“I don’t do T&A very well because I haven’t got much of either.” – Tea Leoni.

“I was an idiot in terms of career-building, but I had a great time.” – Sally Kellerman.

“As you get older, you realise your parents aren't these superheroes. They're actually people.” – Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

“Everybody thought I was crazy. And by the way, I thought I was crazy.” – Jennifer Lopez on spending $20m of her own money on making This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.

“It’s dangerous to repeat performances. It becomes the sole thing on your gravestone.” – Helen Mirren on playing The Queen in The Queen and on stage in The Audience.

“I think I was offered every Marilyn Monroe script ever. I was like: Is this the end of the road creatively?’” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a star.

WAIT & SEE...

This is such a busy year for movies that various releases have been postponed until 2025… Captain America: Brave New World, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, Games of Thrones spin-off The Hedge Knight (not about a gardener), Ke Huy Quan’s actioner With Love, John Wick’s spin-off, Ballerina, Fast X :part 2, Avatar 3, Jurassic World 4, Black Mirror 7, Mission: Impossible 8, Fantastic Four, Superman and the dreaded Michael bio – more like horror film, surely. Oh and no The Batman 2 or Harry P TV series until 2026.