Marion Dougherty, Influential Casting Director Known for Spotting New Talent
Dougherty earned a reputation for identifying future stars when they were were starting their careers.
Marion Dougherty, influential casting director for decades, died December 4, 2011, in New York City. She was 88. According to news reports, the cause was heart disease. Dougherty made a career of discovering future stars. In various media, she spotted names like Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Gene Hackman, Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Glenn Close, Christopher Walken, and more recently, Woody Harrelson, Matthew McConaughey and Diane Lane. She operated her own casting company at Paramount, then Warner Bros., where she cast films like Midnight Cowboy, Urban Cowboy, Reds, Full Metal Jacket, Batman, Joe Versus the Volcano and Lethal Weapon. She got her start on the anthology series Kraft Television Theater, where she cast James Dean. Prior to working in features she also cast the series Naked City and Route 66. Dougherty is noted as revolutionizing the casting process to shy away from typecasting and more toward individual characters. Casting directors became a part of the collaborative creative process. She is survived by her two sisters and her nieces.