Hollywood Stars of Yesteryear Who Did Horror For the Paycheck

Roddy McDowall in "Fright Night" and "Fright Night Part Two'

Bette Davis for "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," "Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte," and "Burnt Offerings"

Olivia de Havilland for "Hush, Hush..." and "The Swarm"

And while it was not a horror film, Laurence Olivier did "A Little Romance" for the paycheck.

R1 I just rewatched "A Little Romance" a few weeks ago. What an odd film-he's ridiculous in it. Diane Lane was adorable.

Tallulah Bankhead (along with Stefanie Powers) in Die! Die! My Darling!

Yes, this was Bacall's contribution to the grand dames guignols genre. It is not at all surprising to me she did this--the character she played was exactly as she saw herself: the most fabulous of Broadway stars. Plus she got to sing! (or, "sing," if you prefer.)

This was during that fascinating window of time (1978-1982) when you could get films with either explicit or extremely overt gay subtexts made at the studios: Making Love, The Apple, Xanadu, Can't Stop the Music. They all flopped, but they were such fascinating films.

Miriam Hopkins and Gale Sondergaard in

Hollywood Horror House aka The Savage Intruder (1970)

An aging actress living in her Hollywood mansion with a retinue of elderly servants employs a new, mentally disturbed, personal assistant who schemes to takeover the large estate.

R4 Upon last night's rewatching, I realized how much it was inspired by Italian Giallo films.

"the character she played was exactly as she saw herself"

I turned to my husband at one point toward the beginning of the film and said it looks like they just decided to follow Lauren around for the day. Drinking vodka and yelling at her assistant is how I always picture her.

Gregory Peck - The Omen in 1976

Olivia also for "Lady in a Cage."

Lana Turner for "The Cube"

Barbara Stanwyck for "The Night Walker" (1965)

Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds for "What's the Matter with Helen?", and Winters again for "Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?"

Geraldine Page for "What's the Matter with Aunt Alice?"

Trog starring Joan Crawford.

I wanted hearts...not diamonds.

Michael Biehn was so hot. I'm sure everyone else knows the answer to this, but for some reason I don't: what happened to his career?

R10 "Pick a note Betty".

Apparently it was drugs r11. Still, he starred in James Cameron's three best films Terminator, Aliens and The Abyss.

He really was excellent in The Fan. The best part of that film, aside from Stapleton.

R12 Sounds like she picked 'em all!

R5 Don't forget John Garfield Jr. was in that one also, looking and sounding a lot like his father as he gave massages to a nude Hopkins.

Elizabeth Taylor - Night Watch in 1973

Carolyn Jones in Tobe Hooper's [italic] Eaten Alive [/italic] 1976

R16 I'm one of her biggest fans and I tried that one recently and just couldn't do it! So awful.

Rory Calhoun- "Motel Hell" (1980)

Yvonne De Carlo and Rod Steiger "American Gothic" (1987)

Veronica Lake in Flesh Feast

R18 Could you manage through 'Boom'?

R21 Oh, I LOVE "Boom!"!

Ray Milland in [italic] Frogs [/italic] 1972

(Featuring a young Sam Elliott in sprayed-on jeans and often shirtless)

Elizabeth Taylor also did the super weird Secret Ceremony in 1968 (Mia Farrow's follow-up to Rosemary's Baby). It's more of a psycho thriller melodrama than horror. So odd. That breakfast scene!

R23 and a pre-chemical peel Joan Van Ark!

Olivia de Havilland in [italic] The Screaming Woman [/italic] 1972 (Made for TV)

DL fav Eleanor Parker did "Eye of the Cat", her penultimate film.

You corny elderqueens into Olde Tyme Hollywood Divas are really out of it.

With the exception of THE OMEN, none of you have mentioned a GOOD horror film that was POPUALR that horror fans still care about.

So I have to start you out with Betsy Palmer in FRIDAY THE 13TH:

POPULAR

George C. Scott did THE CHANGELING and craptacular EXORCIST III.

I liked Exorcist 3

Bette Davis in Dead Ringer

Ray Milland was the male hagsploitation champ in his later years. Along with Frogs there was Premature Burial, X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes, The Thing With Two Heads, The Uncanny, The Attic, Terror In The Wax Museum

Exorcist 3 is mind-numbingly boring and the fabled director’s Cut is even worse.

R34 u saw the director’s cut?

Yeah, it’s on Blu Ray now. It works wonders if you can’t sleep!

John Saxon did three ELM STREETS.

It was also considered slumming for Ronee Blakley to be doing at the time.

Motel Hell was my friend Toms' first on screen credit. The film is really too funny.

He survived the experience and went on to win two oscars, one for Amadeus and the other for The Right Stuff.

I get to play with them when I visit .........

NIGHT WATCH was a hit Broadway play before becoming a film, so it had the appearance of respectability.

Olivier really scraped the bottom of the barrel with THE BETSY. Not a horror film but a horror.

Ralph Richardson shows up in TALES FROM THE CRYPT and WHO SLEW AUNTIE ROO.

Most of the cast of 1977's "The Sentinel". Ava Gardner, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, and there's a cavalcade of stars-to-be in it as well.

I miss Cristina Raines.

Tony Perkins in [italic] How Awful About Alan [/italic] (1970)

Elsa Lanchester in [italic] Willard [/italic] (1971)

Ernest Borgnine was in it, too.

Does Shelley in [italic] The Poseidon Adventure [/italic] count?

I seriously doubt it that Elizabeth Taylor did "Night watch" for the money. She was loaded and was always smart with her finances and had plenty of investments in art real estate and plenty of jewelry. Plus for years people on this site have going on about that fact that she owned a patent on a certain type of film? Or something from her husband who died in a plane crash.

So I doubt Elizabeth did that film for money. She was minted long before the perfume money started rolling in. And the perfume business was started nearly 20 years after "Night Watch."

Same with Olivia de havilland. Didn't she marry some wealthy magazine publisher in France or something? I think de havilland continued to act because she genuinely enjoyed it.

"Death at Love House" was a fabulously, awful, fun 1976 TV movie with a lot of actors that must of wanted a paycheck. It has Robert Wagner, Kate Jackson, Joan Blondell, John Carradine, and Dorothy Lamour.

Beat me to it, R28—she needed a new car

That sounds fantastic R45!

Ida Lupino, Ernest Borgnine, and Eddie Albert in "TheDevil's Rain" 1975

My Pussy starring Meredith Baxter Birney

Donald Pleasance in Halloween

Sandy Dennis in 976-EVIL

George Sanders in [italic]Village of the Damned[/italic]

Leo G. Carrell in [italic]Tarantula[/italic]

Hope Lange in one of the Elm Street movies.

Bette Davis in The Watcher in the Woods

Katherine Helmond in Lady in White

Jessica Lange in Hush and American Horror Mess

Helen Mirren in Winchester

Agnes Moorehead in Dear Dead Delilah

Debbie Reynolds in What's the Matter With Helen?

Surely someone has mentioned Joan Fontaine in "The Witches...?"

Ending her career with a fart and a whimper.

Richard Burton in [italic]Exorcist II: the Heretic[/italic]

Agnes Moorehead in [italic]Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte[/italic] and [italic]the Singing Nun[/italic]

Shepperd Strudwick in Violent Midnight

Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor in The Night Walker

I assume "for the paycheck" means the movie was trash and the actor knew it, but they couldn't get any other roles. Not just an older actor doing what they thought might be a decent quality horror movie.

^^^or didn't want to bother with any other roles.

What's the male equivalent of hag horror? Grandpa Giallo?

John Ericson in The House of the Dead

Deborah Kerr in Eye of the Devil

Gloria Grahame did some schlock horror films later on

Janet Leigh appeared in [italic]the Fog[/italic] along with her daughter, so I doubt she did it for the paycheck. However, the cast also included John Houseman and Hal Holbrook.

I was shocked to see Jane Wyatt of Father Knows Best show up in a made-for-TV Amityville Horror movie late in her career.

Bette Davis was in a few other ones.

One was Burnt Offerings

Another was The Dark Secret of Harvest Home

And yet another was Scream Pretty Peggy

Piper Laurie did Carrie (which was expected to be a B movie at best-in fact, she thought it was a comedy which is why she played Margaret so broad). She also did some weird shit (Ruby) where she was a gun moll and then owned a movie theater.

Betsy Palmer hadn't done a movie since 1958 when she took the role of Mrs. Voorhees in "Friday the 13th" (1980)

Laurie was also in Dario Argento's Trauma (playing Asia's mother)

Dear Glenn in Albert Noobs. Truly frightening. Truly.

Geraldine Fitzgerald did a giallo-ish thriller called Blood Link and the execrable Poltergeist II. She also did Arthur 2: On The Rocks so I'm betting most of her late career choices were for the paycheck

Shelley Winters in Bloody Mama

Carroll Baker

Adding to r19, Yvonne DeCarlo did a ton of horror/exploitation in her later years. If she ever had regrets about slumming it as Lily Munster the worst was yet to come:

Satan's Cheerleaders (!)

Silent Scream

Play Dead

Mirror, Mirror

Guyana: Cult of the Damned

Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (not horror but that title!)

Keenan Wynn, Ida Lupino, Ernest Borgnine, and Eddie Albert in The Devil's Rain (they must have REALLY needed the money)

r74, I'm sure you're aware that was John Travolta's first movie so a nice cross section of rising and falling stars

Tony Curtis, Ann Sothern, and Burgess Meredith in The Manitou

Ruth Roman in The Baby

Olivia de Havilland in “Lady in a Cage” (1964), which was also James Caan’s first major film role. One video guide author defined it as “a lurid shocker.”

Rock Hudson in Embryo. Never actually seen it but get a load of that cast!

I forgot how sexy Micheal Biehn was ! I hadnt thought about him in years. I had such a crush on him after Terminator .

William Holden, Lee Grant and Sylvia Sidney in Damien: Omen II

Kirk Douglas in [italic]the Fury[/italic]

Glenn Ford in Happy Birthday To Me.

He also did The Visitor with Mel Ferrer, Shelley Winters, John Huston, Sam Peckinpah. It looks like a ripoff of The Omen, and in some ways it is, but it's so much more. Bizarre is an understatement. If you like weird 70s movies seek it out. You'll be wondering what wonderful drugs they all must have been doing while making it.

R23, And major VPL.

Sissy Spacek in The Ring 2.

R73, Don't forget "The Seven Minutes".

Barbara Hershey in the Insidious series.

Wow, r86. That looks trash-tastic. And John Sarno is hot!

Oliver Reed & Samantha Eggar in The Brood. Sick ending with so those creature embryo sacks.

Karen Black in The Trilogy of Terror (TV)

Kim Darby Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (TV)

Joan Crawford, Roddy McDowall and Richard Kiley in 'Eyes' episode of Night Gallery (TV)

Melissa Sue Anderson in Happy Birthday to Me where you won't be allowed to enter the movie in the last 10 minutes for it's shocking ending/reveal

Laurence Harvey co-starred with Elizabeth Taylor in Night Watch and also did Welcome to Arrow Beach about cannibalism.

Rob Zombie's two Halloween movies, had a lot of former name actors or kitschy cult stars of the 70s in it's cast

Leslie Easterbrook, Howard Hessman, Margot Kidder, Sybil Danning, Clint Howard, Malcolm McDowell, Brad Dourif, Dee Wallace, Adrienne Barbaeau etc

[quote]Olivia de Havilland in “Lady in a Cage” (1964), which was also James Caan’s first major film role. One video guide author defined it as “a lurid shocker.”

The NY Times screwed up the printing opening. The picture was supposed to look like a lady falling out of a dark elevator but they didn't blacken the background enough and they ended up with this....

And James Caan's entire review was..."James Caan, a bad actor".

[quote]I was shocked to see Jane Wyatt of Father Knows Best show up in a made-for-TV Amityville Horror movie late in her career.

That would be "Amityville Horror: The Evil Escapes", co-starring Patty Duke. I have the DVD signed by Miss Duke.

Catherine Deneuve "The Hunger"

[quote] Karen Black in The Trilogy of Terror (TV)

Karen Black was basically an exploitation actress who stumbled into a few legit films. Her resume is 95% forgettable schlock. And I say that as a huge fan. She was a very interesting figure but clearly didn’t know how to say no to whatever crap was offered. I also love that she refused to call herself a scream queen and denied that she ever made a horror film, insisting on calling them thrillers.

Shelley Winters in 'What's the Matter With Helen?' and 'Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?'

[quote]Karen Black was basically an exploitation actress who stumbled into a few legit films.

Horseshit. She was an A list Oscar nominated actress. She has a stream of big hit a pictures with big directors including Hitchcock. Her crime was getting older as many actress did and changed their career.

[quote]She was a very interesting figure but clearly didn’t know how to say no to whatever crap was offered.

Do you understand what a working actor is? Most actors don't make $20 million a picture and never did. She worked to pay the rent.

R93, Did she sign it willingly?

[quote]R23, And major VPL.

That statement is useless without a picture . . .

[quote]Her crime was getting older as many actress did and changed their career.

Her crime was flying a plane while cross-eyed.

[quote]Did she sign it willingly?

Sure,I'm from Amityville and I have the whole collection and she said she loved working with Jane Wyatt. Like Karen Black, she was a working actor.

Shelley Winters in The Devil's Daughter. Made for TV, 1973.

R82 and R94 Neither [italic] The Fury [/italic] nor [italic] The Hunger [/italic] were schlock or "for the paycheck" material.

Karen Black was a lot of fun. I wasn't born for Airport, but I've seen her land that plane. And she's very good in Day of The Locust and a Trans worst nightmare in Come Back to the Five and Dime - but such a lot of fun tormenting everyone at the reunion while slouching in that crisp white suit. Then we have her "singing" career which I have seen live and in person. She was nuts, but very entertaining. Quite terrible in a lot of her work, but good terrible. The kind that's fun to watch. She really was kind of a soap style actress. Very high class.

Barbara Stanwyck also did a made-for-TV movie called "The House That Would Not Die" in 1970.

A ghost story tied to an old house that Stanwyck inherits. Tied in with a story of a Revolutionary War father and daughter.

Also starred Richard Egan and Michael Anderson Jr with Kitty Winn playing Stanwyck's college age niece who becomes a main focus of the disturbances.

[quote]Neither The Fury nor The Hunger were schlock or "for the paycheck" material.

Honey, speak for yourself. The old lipstick on a pig but "The Hunger" was a just another shlocky though glossy vampire flick.

We know, R74. But why bother your beautiful mind with reading?

Dorothy Malone in The Being

Stars like Myrna Loy and Claudette Colbert, among others, must've thanked God every day that they saved and invested well during their stardom years so they didn't have to do the embarrassing schlock that a lot of their contemporaries had to do as they got older and the good roles dried up.

Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, and Elsa Lanchester in various “Night Galley” offerings.

Joan Crawford's Night Gallery episode was very good. She acted her ass off.

Barbara Rush, Laurence Harvey, and Dana Andrews were also on Night Gallery

Let's not forget de Havilland in the Movie of the Week THE SCREAMING WOMAN, with her CHARLOTTE co-star Joseph Cotten.

Patricia Neal, Cloris Leachman, Bobby Darin in HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, LOVE GEORGE (aka RUN STRANGER RUN).

Directed by Darren McGavin, with Ron Howard and Neal's daughter Tessa Dahl. Bad movie - the distributor had to use a quote in the ads from Arlene Francis of all people.

Neal also did a British film called THE NIGHT DIGGER (it shows up on TCM under the British title THE ROAD BUILDER). A character study of a spinster who falls for a psycho. Not a bad movie but the direction is flat.

R83 Happy Birthday To Me is my favorite 80s schlocky horror film! I was watching a Glenn Ford movie this morning and mentioned it to my husband-we're gonna make pizza and watch it tonight and pretend it's 1980...we have fun.

Geraldine Page and Ruth Gordon in Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice

Lee J. Cobb and Max Von Sydow in "The Exorcist."

I doubt they did that movie just for the paycheck r117. The Exorcist was a prestigious project and remains a high point in the careers of everybody involved.

R114 - You forgot to mention that the gorgeous young Nicholas Clay is in The Night Digger too.

The Night Digger sounds like surprise anal porn.

Helen Reddy n Airport ‘75

[quote]Joan Crawford's Night Gallery episode was very good. She acted her ass off.

Her director was a young, total unknown named Steven Spielberg. Joan wasn't sure she wanted to work with him but after a couple of days she became one his earliest supporters in the business.

Betsy Palmer's car or truck had died and her mechanic told her it would cost more to fix than to buy a new one. So she took Friday the 13th strictly to pay for a new set of wheels. It's a well known story she told several times in interviews.

Farts loudly

Yeah, that Night Gallery episode, called Eyes, was part of the pilot and it was Spielberg's first professional directing job. Crawford had extreme reservations about working with someone so inexperienced said so. But by the time shooting was done she thought he was a young genius and praised him highly both privately and publicly. They remained friends until her death.

two weeks later

R9 I saw Trog at the drive in with my parents. I was 7 years old and took a liking to poor Trog, but not so much to Joan.

Didn't Spielberg Duel around that time as well? Or perhaps Duel was a reward for a job well-done on Night Gallery.

People didn't duel in the 70's, R127.

Didn't he DIRECT Duel.

The Night Gallery episode was 1969. He did more guest directing jobs on TV until he was hired for the TV film Duel in 1971. It was his first feature length film. And Crawford died in 1977, not two weeks after the Night Gallery episode.

Thank you r130.

Trog’s makeup looked better than Joan’s.

Joan Crawford was brilliant in Duel. She was born to play a truck. Spielberg commented that she required extra time in lighting and that you dare not strike a match near her breath, but that she really dug deep and gave good grill. After she blew him. Joan was quite believable as a menace.

Cesar Romero in "Two on a Guillotine"

"The Exorcist was a prestigious project and remains a high point in the careers of everybody involved."

It was a horror movie. And I never heard anywhere that it was considered "a prestigious project." It made a lot of money but it was still a horror movie and a particularly distasteful one, at that.

R135 it was an academy award winning movie

The Exorcist was based on a top best selling novel with a distinguished cast and director. It was a high profile, prestige project. It was in the horror genre but nobody took this on just for the paycheck.

David Strathairn in The Univited. His youngest son was attending MIT, so he probably had tuition payments.

^ This. The exorcist was a much anticipated film. I can't think of a bestselling book today that would be as much looked forward to when it came to the screen. The Life of Pi and Gone Girl are all that come to mind.

I met Michael Biehn at a convention last year. I attended his meet and greet, panel questions, and got an autograph. He looked terrible. I was so excited and then shocked when I met him. I made a remark about him traveling to all the conventions and he said “I travel light”. He lifted up his shirt to show he had three T-shirts underneath his jacket, and explained he was always cold due to his blood thinners. He’s a nice man but the years of alcohol and smoking caught up with him. His wife was there and kept the line going. He wanted to spend more time with each person but she kept things rolling.

Madeline Ashton in that movie that Helen Sharp keeps watching in Death Becomes Her. I think it's called Night Curtain or something.

Gloria Swanson in "Killer Bees"

Anything M has done or will do is considered a Hollywood horror film. She probably does most of them for the money, she has a tacky wardrobe to support......

:"The Exorcist' was PROFITABLE, not "prestigious." Lee J. Cobb and Max Von Sydow were definitely in it for the money. Why else would they be in a movie where a little girl spits pea soup in priest's faces and fucks a crucifix? None of the rest of the cast were high profile actors; they needed the money, too. As for it winning an Academy Award...well, it was shut out at the Oscars except for William Peter Blatty winning for best adapted screenplay. The Academy threw the film that bone because it made so much money.

George Kennedy

Morgan Fairchild had the distinction of appearing in The Initiation of Sarah, and the remake!

Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark in The Swarm

[quote]I get to play with them when I visit .........

I have a suggestion where you can put them next time R38...

FUCK YOU, R147.

And in the very special category of comedy horror, may I present this!

Michelle Pfeiffer in mother!

Re The Exorcist..Ellen Burstyn was a huge star at the time and certainly didn’t do it for the money.

Pay attention r144...these are movies like Trog with Joan Crawford we are talking about. You insisting that The Exorcist is the same type of paycheck schlock makes you look stupid.

Erich von Stroheim -- The Lady and the Monster, co-starring Vera Hruba Ralston.

R135 it was a big budget, Academy Award winning horror movie, based on a bestselling book

Like Rosemary's Baby, it was definitely a "prestige" picture

[quote] It was a horror movie. And I never heard anywhere that it was considered "a prestigious project." It made a lot of money but it was still a horror movie and a particularly distasteful one, at that.

You're a fucking shit-stirring idiot. Just stop talking.

Don't take the bait.

I would consider "Trog" more Science Fiction than Horror.

If you want to see Joan Crawford in a true horror movie, watch "Berserk!"

Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain in Hot Rods to Hell

Lana Turner in The Big Cube

Janet Leigh in Night of the Lepus

Farley Granger in The Prowler

Joan Crawford in Strait Jacket

Henry Fonda, John Huston, and Shelley Winters in TENTACLES.

Sandra Dee in THE DUNWICH HORROR (ok, she was close to being washed up, but still...).

Lili Palmer in THE HOUSE THAT SCREAMED (aka LA RESIDENCIA), which is actually quite good.

Dame Edith Evans and Trevor Howard in a godawful movie called CRAZE, starring Jack Palance. From the same producer as BERSERK and TROG.

Poor Edith.

The best thing about Berserk was Jody, The Wonder Elephant

"The Exorcist" was more than "prestigious." It was "awaited with excitement." Those three words are the height of what actually brings prestige in the business.

As for Larry Olivier, just about everything he did in the last 20 years of his life was done for the paycheck. He said so himself. I see perhaps three of all the films he made after 1960 as being done with a hand out for the cash. But we're talking about horror, so it's moot here.

Well, it has a dead man in a coffin lugged around, so I'll add 1967's "Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad."

No one could have done it for any reason but the money, and perhaps a trip to Jamaica.

Rosalind Russell, Robert Morse, Barbara Harris, Hugh Griffith, Lionel Jeffries - it sat on the shelf for two years and ended up having scenes added with Jonathan Winters as "Dad" to try to make it "funnier." Harris had been in the play Off-Broadway, so maybe she felt something, but Roz wanted a fur, I suspect, and paid for it with this.

"Pay attention [R144]...these are movies like Trog with Joan Crawford we are talking about. You insisting that The Exorcist is the same type of paycheck schlock makes you look stupid."

Pay attention, R151. You don't want to look stupid, do you? A horror movie is a horror movie. "The Exorcist" happened to have a bigger budget than others, due to William Friedkin being the director. He's an odd guy, which is one reason why he decided to undertake a film version of an over the top horror novel. The horror genre has always been considered second rate, although in recent years it's reputation has been shored up by the success of a big budget projections and successful independent movies. All the actors in "The Exorcist" knew they were slumming, but didn't care because they got a nice paycheck out of it. That was the incentive: the money. After the movie became a big hit and got nominated for Oscars they were astounded. None of them expected it; it was just a revolting horror movie. But it got Oscar noms because of its box office success, not due to its quality. It kind of reminds me of "Titanic", a hugely popular movie that really wasn't that great, but got nominated for a lot of Oscars and even won Best PIcture.

By the way, Ellen Burstyn was NEVER "a huge star." She won an Oscar but she never became a big star. She was, always was, a character actress.

[quote] All the actors in "The Exorcist" knew they were slumming, but didn't care because they got a nice paycheck out of it. That was the incentive: the money. After the movie became a big hit and got nominated for Oscars they were astounded. None of them expected it; it was just a revolting horror movie. But it got Oscar noms because of its box office success, not due to its quality. It kind of reminds me of "Titanic", a hugely popular movie that really wasn't that great, but got nominated for a lot of Oscars and even won Best PIcture.

You have no idea what you are talking about. "The Exorcist" was an A movie from the beginning. Based a huge runaway bestseller. It was actually supposed to star Audrey Hepburn who agreed to do it if they would shoot in Rome where she was living but Warner Bros said no so it was shot in NY.

The movie was and always treated as an A. It received and exclusive upper East side premiere engagement at the Cinema I & II which was the prestige theater in NY at the time. And no, no was surprised it recieved Oscar nominations, the surprise was it lost to "The Sting"

Gig Young in The Shuttered Room

R168 They also asked Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, and even threw out the idea of Carol Burnett. All of whom would have been great.

Walter Pidgeon and DL Patron Saint Olivia de Havilland in the TV movie The Screaming Woman

Titanic was an excellent movie.

I think Audrey Hepburn would have been fantastic as the mother in the Exorcist. She was older then, but still had such a modern and refined way about her that the abomination of it all would have registered even more terribly on her genteel countenance. Plus Audrey played terrified and resilient very well. I love Burstyn in other things, but she doesn't stand out in The Exorcist. The Exorcist is not a great film, but well above being a schlocky horror movie. It was every bit as anticipated as Rosemary's Baby, though not half as good.

Audrey Hepburn as the foul mouthed Chris MacNeil? That's hilarious. I don't think she would EVER have seriously considered playing a role where she got her face rubbed in her daughter's bloody crotch. It was hard to cast the role; a big name was sought after but NO big name actress wanted to do it, and that's understandable. Be in a horror movie where all THAT disgusting stuff happens? No wonder they had to settle for Ellen Burstyn, who was certainly a good actress, but not a big name star. Here's a list of actresses who were said to turn down the role or be considered for it:

Geraldine Page

Barbra Streisand

Lee Remick

Shirley MacLaine

Jane Fonda

Anne Bancroft

Debbie Reynolds

Raquel Welch

Christ! Could you imagine Welch as Chris MacNeil?

About as easily as a quite old Geraldine Page.

Remick would have been terrific. I'm surprised Joanne Woodward wasn't on the list, not that she would have done it.

Joan Bennett in "Suspiria" (1977)

Sterling Hayden in [italic]Venom[/italic]

Joan Bennet in Dark Shadows

Gloria Swanson in “Killer Bees”, costarring DL favorite Miss Kate Jackson!

Poor Gloria. Having to settle for a TV movie about bees.

They’re all whores

[quote]Remick would have been terrific.

She would have and she went on to have her own problem child.

I read in Bob Colacello’s Warhol biography that Taylor charged her expenses to a movie instead of accepting a salary or points in the gross.