Marion Dougherty, a casting director for the “Route 66” television drama of the early 1960s, will be featured in the documentary “Casting By” on Monday night on the HBO cable network, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Dougherty also led the casting for television’s “Naked City” and the films “The Sting,” “Midnight Cowboy,” “The Paper Chase,” “The Killing Fields” and “Lethal Weapon.”
The trailer for “Casting By”:
https://youtu.be/R1EHFoE9uB0
The Times detailed Dougherty’s approach:
Juliet Taylor, a well-known casting director who worked with her early in her career, said Dougherty took a firm, blunt approach to casting — and to directors.
“She would tell directors, ‘I just want you to know I am not going to bring in 10 or 20 people for every part. I am going to bring in three or four people, and each one is going to be very different,’ ” Taylor recalled. “She in a way had to discipline the directors into a new kind of process, a very selective process rather than just throwing a lot of people in front of them in a more general way.” […]
She was in New York at a golden age for small theater, where she discovered many future stars. Because she was an outsider, he said, “She was able to bring [casting] into a new perspective. She had complete power to find somebody off-Broadway, bring them in and put them on TV. Nobody said yes or no to her choices. Television was so new and fast, I don’t know if anybody had the skill sets to really supervise her.”
In interviews, Dougherty’s casting has been repeatedly cited as one of the reasons for “Route 66’s” quality — the show could get up-and-coming talent for cheap.
Among the actors she cast for “Route 66” were Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, James Caan, George Kennedy, Walter Matthau, Ed Asner, Lee Marvin, Jack Lord, Suzanne Pleshette, Leslie Nielsen, Martin Sheen, Rod Steiger, Burt Reynolds, Gene Hackman, Alan Alda and William Shatner.
Dougherty also helped launch the Hollywood acting careers of Dustin Hoffman, Bette Midler, James Dean, Glenn Close, Warren Beatty, Al Pacino and Jon Voight. Dougherty also guided the careers of other casting directors.
Dougherty died in 2011 at age 88.