Jack Lemmon in Some Like it Hot (1959)
Some Like It Hot is one of the most successful films of all time, and it helped launch Marilyn Monroe to the legendary fame she is renowned for. However, the film may have turned out quite differently since Jack Lemmon was not the initial choice to play Jerry/Daphne—Frank Sinatra was. However, Jack Lemmon was given the part despite egregiously failing to show up for a casting dinner call.
Shirley MacLaine in What a Way to Go (1964)
Shirley MacLaine tore up the screen in the finest way in 1960’s dark comedy, What a Way to Go, another fortunate accident of unexpected casting. However, Marilyn Monroe had been scheduled to star in numerous contracted films throughout the early 1960s, but her tragic death in 1962 had upended all of her projects. Thus, Marilyn was the first cast in What a Way to Go.
Alain Delon & Brigitte Bardot (1968)
Alain Delon dubbed the “man Bardot,” was the mirror image of Brigitte Bardot. While they did star in a film together called The Famous Love Affairs, the weighty rumors that always seemed to orbit the two about having a hot affair together were always a pipe dream utterly fabricated out of thin air. What they did have, according to Alain, was a normal friendship. “We love one other so intensely without having had anything together,” Alain affectionately said.
Lee Marvin in ‘The Wild One’ (1953)
Lee Marvin was a former marine-turned-actor, probably Hollywood’s “alpha male” in the 1950s and 1960s. Lee was gruff, strong, and stoic, as seen by this image from his film The Wild One. Though his façade may have appeared conservative at the time, Lee was quite vocal about his support for homosexual rights and the reality of war. While not considered taboo now, many of his statements were ahead of their time at the time.