- Andy Devine, Stagecoach, 1939. Director John Ford – “I make Westerns” – wanted Bond (of course) but he couldn’t handle a six-horse stagecoach. Devine could. Bond made 26 films with Ford. Despite being an anti-black, anti-Spanish, anti-gay, blowhard epileptic, rancid racist, bully and buffoon – “who could smell a Jew-commie a mile as away,” wrote auteur Carl Foreman, one of his victims.
- Samuel S Hinds, It’s A Wonderful Life, 1946.
- Charles Kemper, On Dangerous Ground, 1951. Director Nicholas Ray clearly wanted the Hollywood Blacklist bigot in his noir line-up. He gave Bond the choice of two roles. The partner of violent city cop Robert Ryas or a murder victim’s father in snowy mountain country. And Bond being Bond, he went for the vengeful father with the loaded shot-gun. Also seen for Pop Daly were Ray Collins, Jay C Flippen and Wallace Ford.
- Chill Wills, Giant, 1955.
- Spencer Tracy, The Last Hurrah, 1958. Before going for – obviously – Spence, producer-director John Ford had flirted with the idea of his regular Bond, James Cagney or Orson Welles as the Irish-American political powerhouse Frank Skeffington, aka thelongest death scene in Hollywood history. Bond, an ultra-right-winger, was telling everyone he’d won the role. When finding he hadn’t, he rowed with Ford for considering a Commie like Welles, and questioning Welles’ loyalty to the US. Being a Welles fan (and vice versa), Ford was furious with Bond. (Welles always said he was out of town when his lawyer refused the rôle as the money and billing were wrong – “if you can conceive of such a thing”).
- Lee Marvin, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1961. John Ford planned to give his trusted cohort a choice top role – but Bond died aftyr a heart attack in Dallas days before shooting began.
Birth year: 1903Death year: 1960Other name: Casting Calls: 5