- Clark Gable, Parnell, 1936. Longtime on-off lovers Joan Crawford and Clark Gable made seven movies in as many years. This was not one of them. Crawford advised Gable to copy her and quit this “boring, pretentious” script. He stayed and Myrna Loy joined him (becoming King and Queen of Hollywood in Ed Sullivan’s poll). “Leave it to Knowles.” (He had tested). Crawford wuz right. Film tanked and put Gable off costume dramas… including Gone With The Wind.
- Randolph Scott, Corvette K-225, 1942. Or Corvettes in Action when director Howard Hawks’ early casting suggestions included Knowles for Lieutenant Commander MacClain among a cast of notables: Evelyn Ankers, Diana Barrymore, Nigel Bruce, Leif Erickson, Dick Foran, Jon Hall and Robert Stack.
- Robert Walker, Madame Curie, 1943. Knowles would have been better… Walker looked quite lost as part of the Pierre and Marie Curie lab team discovering radium and polonium in the MGM biopic… with such lines as “And my mother’s quite gay” and (well, it was raining) “Don’t forget your rubbers!”
- Henry Wilcoxon, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 1948. Bing Crosby was a 1912 mechanic finding himself in 528AD Britain when Arthur was king… and Lancelot was not Knowles but the CB DeMille favourite – his Mark Antony for Cleopatra,1933, King Richard in The Crusades, 1934, Ahtu for Samson and Delilah, 1948, and Pentaur in The Ten Commandments, 1955.
Birth year: 1911Death year: 1995Other name: Casting Calls: 4