Lynn Stalmaster, the Oscar-winning casting director with a talented eye helped launch the careers of John Travolta, Christopher Reeve, Richard Dreyfuss and many other actors, has died. He was 93 years old.
Stalmaster became the first person to receive an Oscar for casting when he accepted an honorary Oscar for his career in 2016. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had long been reluctant to give special recognition. to the casting directors and Stalmaster was mourned.
“It’s not just an Oscar for me, but it recognizes the most important contribution that casting makes,” he said.
He began his acting career, even appearing with John Wayne in the 1951 film “Flying Leathernecks,” but wanted a security plan. He was an apprentice to a couple of TV producers who made him their casting director.
Stalmaster was looking for stars for shows like “Gunsmoke” and “Ben Casey” when director Robert Wise played him to cast supporting actors in a 1958 film starring Susan Hayward called “I Want to Live!”
Stalmaster opened his independent casting office just as the reign of the Hollywood contract-based studio system came to an end, allowing actors and directors new freedom of choice when it came to choosing their projects. Stalmaster made his business known to all young performers in Los Angeles and New York and traveled the United States and Europe to find new talent.
Stalmaster has released more than 200 films, including “The Graduate”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Harold and Maude”, “Tootsie”, “Deliverance”, “Being There”, “Judgment at Nuremberg” and “The Right Stuff. ”He also worked on a documentary about casting directors,“ Casting By, ”the title that referred to how Stalmaster and his colleagues were credited in films, rather than being called“ casting directors ”.
“A pioneer of our craft, Lynn was a pioneer with more than half a century of world-class film and television casting credits,” the Casting Society of America said in a statement. “Thank you, Lynn, for showing us the way.”
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1927, Stalmaster said his father gave him the confidence to become an actor.
“Imagine my father, who was on the Nebraska Supreme Court, parents don’t want their children to be actors,” he said. “But he said, ‘I want you to go to the Abbey Theater.’
With his acting career, Stalmaster often read in front of the actors he hoped to release to bring out the best performance during auditions.
“I could look into her eyes and play the scene,” she said in a 2016 interview. “And I probably played more roles than any other actor in the story and the women!”
He suggested Travolta for what became his lead role: Vinnie Barbarino in the sitcom “Welcome Back, Kotter.” Other actors who may thank Stalmaster for his early film roles are Dreyfuss, who had a line in 1967’s “The Graduate,” as well as Jon Voight, James Caan, Martin Landau, and Jeff Bridges.
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Former Associated Press writer Sandy Cohen compiled biographical material for this obituary.