She gave Robert Redford a one-line role in a film whose name she can no longer remember, discovered Al Pacino in "The Indian Wants the Bronx," and gave performers like Robert Duvall, Dustin Hoffman and Martin Sheen a chance to work in front of the camera. "Marion gave me my first job, on the Kraft show," recalls Warren Beatty." Years later, Beatty used Dougherty to cast several of his films.īeatty is one of numerous actors who can point to the casting veteran as a force in their careers. Throughout TV's Golden Age, Dougherty cast New York actors for the renowned "Kraft Television Theater," "Naked City" and "Route 66." After she was on the job for two weeks, her boss quit and she became his replacement. Because there were no casting directors at the time, various people, her boss included, handled casting. and undisputed grand dame of the profession, launched her career in 1949 as an assistant to an executive in an ad agency that handled the Kraft account. It went from woman-to-woman, starting with Marion."ĭougherty ("Lethal Weapon 4"), vice president of talent at Warner Bros. Then they became the tutors and passed on the mantle to their apprentices. Her young assistants - Juliet Taylor and Wally Nicita - went on to become the next rank. "And Marion Dougherty, more than anybody in the old guard, is responsible for how the casting system became female-dominated. They volunteered information, and some clever boss said, `Let's let her do it. Jenkins speculates on how women came to lead the charge of the casting brigade: "As the system changed, there were a number of secretaries who also watched movies and knew who actors were. Jenkins, formerly an actress in New York, began her career when actor Ralph Waite - who played the father on TV's "The Waltons" - hired her to cast "On the Nickel," a low-budget film Waite wrote, directed and starred in. For 20 years, the duo has found the talent for Hollywood's leading filmmakers, including Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard. Jane Jenkins is half of the famous Hirshenson and Jenkins partnership. The casting director profession was born. And the onset of television's Golden Age created a brand-new set of opportunities for people with a gift for matching human beings with characters on a page. The demise of contract players and the growing complexity of movies also created a gap to fill. Compare the credits from a current film with the credits for a 1940s movie - the difference in the number of people listed is dramatic. Concurrently, filmmaking began an era of increasing specialization. The studio system crumbled, and the age of contract players ended. In the '50s, several events converged to create an opening for a bonafide casting profession. Talent scouts - mostly men - searched for actors deemed worthy of contract status. Both culled their choices from players under contract with the studios. ![]() During the studio system's heyday, executive bigwigs chose and groomed the stars. Initially, casting did not exist as an established profession.
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