- John Gavin, Psycho, 1959. Alfred Hitchcock took his own sweet time finding Sam Loomis, lover of the shock murder-in-the-shower victim, Janet Leigh the low budget, “TV-style” Paramount movie No. 9401 He saw Loggia, Brian Keith, Leslie Nielsen, Cliff Robertson, Rod Taylor (chosen for Hitchcock’s next one, The Birds) and Tom Tryon. Hitch’s favourite was Stuart Whitman but loaning Universal contract actor John Gavin suited the cheaper budget – but not the role. Hitch called him… The Stiff. Hardly news as Gavin had made two Alfred Hitchcock Hour episodes: Run For Doom, 1963, and Off Season, 1965.
- Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet, 1986. The sound and the fury… bred a whole other role eleven years later. Loggia kept his audition appointment and was kept waiting three hours before meeting David Lynch and on being told that Dennis had been given the role. Loggia blew his top, described as “an extremely profane rant.” Lynch never forgot it and it became the basis of Mr Eddy’s road rage in Lost Highway, 1997 – offered to Loggia and no one else. He played it with relish. He was, after all, Mr Eddy – just as Dennis has always declared: “I’ve gotta play Frank. Because I am Frank! [Pause] Not literally. But I’d known a lot of guys like Frank and understood… his sexual obsession. You can call [him] a deviant, a pervert, a madman, whatever. But I saw him as a man who would to go any lengths to keep his lady… It’s essentially a love story.” Oh, really? Also on the Lynch list: Steven Berkoff, Willem Dafoe, Harry Dean Stanton.
- Burt Reynolds, Physical Evidence, 1989. What was supposed to be a Jagged Edge sequel, re-teaming 1985’s Loggia and Glenn Close, became a B-flick meeting of Burt and Theresa Russell.
- Tommy Lee Jones, JFK, 1991.
Birth year: 1930Death year: 2015Other name: Casting Calls: 4