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ANOTHER LADY IN WHITE ALUMNI HAS LEFT US: LYNN STALMASTER

Writer's picture: Frank LaLoggiaFrank LaLoggia

(Originally posted February 13, 2021)


Lynn Stalmaster was the Casting Director on LADY IN WHITE.


I met Lynn on a trip I took from my hometown of Rochester, New York to Toronto during the summer of 1972 to visit a friend of mine, David Daniels, who was my age (18) and already working as a professional actor in film and television in Canada.


David had a "call" to read for Lynn who was in Toronto seeking the co-lead for a soon to be shot Hal Ashby film titled THE LAST DETAIL. The film was to star Jack Nicholson and Otis Young. I went with David to the call and asked the receptionist if I might be able to read for Lynn. She told Lynn about my interest and he asked her to give me the "sides" (pages from the script that they were using to audition with) so that I might prepare. My buddy David walked out of Lynn's office after his read and I caught his jaw drop as the receptionist ushered ME in!


I knew who Lynn was as I'd seen his name on countless films released during the 60's and early seventies. After the reading, he turned to me and said that he was mightily impressed. He asked me to tell him a bit about myself. I volunteered that I was on my way to university that fall but planned to be in L.A. in a couple of years to pursue a professional career. He then asked if I would be able to fly to New York the following week, all expenses paid, to read for Hal Ashby. I said "sure!" He took a couple of photos of me and said that his only concern was that I was physically similar to Nicholson in type and that Ashby wanted someone to contrast the actor in appearance.


When I phoned him at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel the following week as instructed, he said that he had shown my photos to Ashby and that Ashby wasn't interested in reading me due to the aforementioned. He then told me to get in touch with him when I got to L.A. And so I did, two years later. He was the only person I "knew" in "the business" at that time.


I told him that I had made a short film (GABRIEL), since we'd met, and that I had also played the lead in it. He asked how he might be able to see it. I told him that I had a 16mm print and could bring my projector and the film to his office to screen. He said that would be fine. I did so and within a month he'd cast me in the lead for a CBS/Warner Bros sit-com pilot.


Over the next three years, Lynn would call me in to read for a variety of projects. I was cast in two other pilots for ABC.


Jump cut to 1986 and pre-production on LADY. I asked Lynn to cast the film and after reading the script, he happily came on board at a much reduced fee. I remember his coming to my office for our first meeting on the film and his sitting on the opposite side of my desk. I joked that it sure felt good having HIM on the opposite side of MY desk for a change! We both laughed.


When the film was completed, I arranged a special screening of LADY at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences theater for just the two of us. He was thrilled with the film. When the film opened in L.A., he suggested that we both go to see it together with an audience at the Universal City Cinemas. The audience was so involved with the film that they were yelling at the screen during the climax. Lynn turned to me afterwards and said that it was the first time he'd seen an audience react to a film he'd been a part of in that manner since IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT.


Lynn Stalmaster was one of the good guys.



Lynn Stalmaster
Lynn Stalmaster



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