- Martin Milner, Sweet Smell of Success, 1956. Burt Lancaster saw Vaughn in an LA stage version of Broadway’s End As A Man, and signed him to an non-exclusive contract, $7,599 per movie (whether he made them or not). This was to be the first offer – the young musician displeasing powerful columnists Burt Lancaster by dating his sister. His breakthrough (and Oscar nomination) was put on hold for two years until The Young Philadelphians “because I got drafted to the Army.” Vaughn (who had two parts in The Ten Commandments) used to be stopped by folks in the street and at parties and spout his Magnificent Seven lines back to him. Such as when after catching flies in his hand and showing two in his palm, he rasped: “There was a time when I could caught all three.”
- George Hamilton, All the Fine Young Cannibals, 1959. A dismal picture, Vaughn agreed. And he was out of it because of Disney duty in Zorro as a Mexican rainmaker called Miguel Roverto – “with a bad moustahce and a worse accent.”
- Patrick McGoohan, Silver Streak, 1976. Yes, yes, he told his agent, he’d love to join the (first) as an urbane and despicable villain. He was thinking Basil Rathbone or George Sanders… when McGoohan had already signed on. “I’m sorry,” director Arthur Hiller told Vaughn, “the script was sent to you by accident.” He finally did his Rathbone-Sanders suavity as con man Albert Troller in the BBC series, Hustle, 2004-2010, in his 70s.
- Gene Kelly, Inherit The Wind, 1960. Offered the newspaperman EK Hornbeck, in case the dancer turned it down, Bob rode off instead with The Magnificent Seven. Kelly did, indeed, refuse producer-director Stanley Kramer’s offer… until told his co-stars would be Spencer Tracy and Fredric March.
Birth year: 1932Death year: 2016Other name: Casting Calls: 4