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Irene Papas |
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- Haya Hayareet, Ben-Hur, 1959. The Greek star was among earlier casting plans in 1956. After his 2004 death, Papas admitted to being among Marlon Brando’s legions of lovers - “a long relationship,” 1954-99.
- Ilse Steppat, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, 1968.
- Edith Evans, The Madwoman of Chaillot, 1969. The Greek star turned down an invitation to be Josephine, so a strangely misguided director, Bryan Forbes, gave the role to one of his favourites, Dame Edith Evans, despite being 80, almost twice the age of Papas! But nothing was right about this version of the Giraudoux play with an absurd mixed-bag cast: Charles Boyer, Yul Brynner, John Gavin, Richard Chamberlain, Claude Dauphin, Paul Henreid, Katharine Hepburn, Oscar Homolka, Margaret Leighton, Giulietta Masina (Mrs Fellini), Nanette Newman (Mrs Forbes), Donald Pleasence, Gerald Sim (he made nine Forbes films) and even Danny Kaye over-egging a ragpicker in bis final film. UK actor turned scenarist turned director Bryan Forbes was biting off off more than he could chew - no wonder John Huston quit the gig. Chicago critic Roger Ebert said Dame Edith alone was appealing: “an old lady playing an old lady, simply and directly.” (The Place de Chaillot set turned up again four years later in a far more enjoyable enterprise: François Truffaut’s La nuit americaine (Day For Night).
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