Viola Davis in that role. The idea of Hollywood casting Theresa Merritt at the time would have been unthinkable. For much of the past century, Hollywood sidelined great theater performers and considered the plays they appeared in mere vehicles for their film stars. In fact, not until the middle of the century were theater greats even considered for the roles they made famous on Broadway.

Bette Davis?

Hal B. Wallis. It was his vision that enabled movie audiences to discover Geraldine Page (in Summer and Smoke), Shirley Booth (in Come Back Little Sheba), and much earlier Monty Woolley (in The Man Who Came to Dinner). Of course, Judy Holliday’s success in Born Yesterday, when she won the Oscar in 1950 might have had something to do with it. But that only happened because Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn were able to convince Harry Cohn to give her a role that was once intended for Rita Hayworth.

Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame did Hollywood change its mindset. As a result, Robert Preston was cast in The Music Man, Anne Bancroft and Patti Duke in The Miracle Worker, Barbra Streisand, recreated her award-winning role in Funny Girl, Gwen Verdon in Damn Yankees, James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope, Paul Schofield in A Man for All Seasons, Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady, Ron Moody in Oliver!, Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun, Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Harvey Fierstein in Torch Song Trilogy. Warner Bros. even let Mervyn LeRoy hire the entire original Broadway cast of The Bad Seed, and more recently Ron Howard used both original cast members Michael Sheen and Frank Langella to recreate their Frost/Nixon stage roles.

40 Carats made Lauren Bacall the toast of Broadway she didn’t get the film role, it went to Liv Ullmann, and the same happened with Cactus Flower when Ingrid Bergman got that part. Even an icon like Edward G. Robinson endured the indignity of seeing Fredric March cast in Middle of the Night. It happened time and again. Rex Harrison won a Tony for Anne of the Thousand Days but was replaced by Richard Burton for the movie, the same with Angela Lansbury in Mame, replaced by Lucille Ball, Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady replaced by Audrey Hepburn, Geraldine Page in The Rainmaker replaced by Katharine Hepburn. And of course, most egregious of all, Ethel Merman in Gypsy replaced by Rosalind Russell.

color:#222222’>if you happen to be in the original Broadway production of a long-running Neil Simon play you could forget about getting the role in the film. So you have The Odd Couple with Jack Lemmon replacing Art Carney, Barefoot in the Park with Jane Fonda replacing Elizabeth Ashley, Lost in Yonkers with Richard Dreyfuss replacing Kevin Spacey, Brighton Beach Memoirs with Blythe Danner replacing Elizabeth Franz, The Sunshine Boys with Walter Matthau replacing Jack Albertson, and The Prisoner of Second Avenue with Jack Lemmon again replacing Peter Falk.