Casablanca

Cast

Greenstreet and Bogart

The play's cast consisted of 16 speaking parts and several extras; the film script enlarged it to 22 speaking parts and hundreds of extras.[12] The cast is notably international: only three of the credited actors were born in the United States (Bogart, Dooley Wilson, and Joy Page). The top-billed actors are:[13]

  • Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine
  • Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund. Bergman's official website calls Ilsa her "most famous and enduring role".[14] The Swedish actress's Hollywood debut in Intermezzo had been well received, but her subsequent films were not major successes until Casablanca. Film critic Roger Ebert called her "luminous", and commented on her chemistry with Bogart: "she paints his face with her eyes".[15] Other actresses considered for the role of Ilsa included Ann Sheridan, Hedy Lamarr, Luise Rainer, and Michèle Morgan. Producer Hal Wallis obtained the services of Bergman, who was contracted to David O. Selznick, by lending Olivia de Havilland in exchange.[16]
  • Paul Henreid as Victor Laszlo. Henreid, an Austrian actor who had emigrated in 1935, was reluctant to take the role (it "set [him] as a stiff forever", according to Pauline Kael[17]), until he was promised top billing along with Bogart and Bergman. Henreid did not get on well with his fellow actors; he considered Bogart "a mediocre actor"; Bergman called Henreid a "prima donna".[18]

The second-billed actors are:

  • Claude Rains as Captain Louis Renault
  • Conrad Veidt as Major Heinrich Strasser. Veidt was a refugee German actor who had fled the Nazis with his Jewish wife, but frequently played Nazis in American films. He was the highest paid member of the cast despite his second billing. He died shortly after the film's release.[19]
  • Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari
  • Peter Lorre as Signor Ugarte

Also credited are:

  • Curt Bois as the pickpocket. Bois had one of the longest careers in cinema, spanning over 80 years.
  • Leonid Kinskey as Sascha, the Russian bartender infatuated with Yvonne. Kinskey told Aljean Harmetz, author of Round Up the Usual Suspects: The Making of Casablanca, that he was cast because he was Bogart's drinking buddy. He was not the first choice for the role; he replaced Leo Mostovoy, who was deemed not funny enough.[20]
  • Madeleine Lebeau as Yvonne, Rick's soon-discarded girlfriend. Lebeau was a French refugee who had left Nazi-occupied Europe with her husband Marcel Dalio, who was a fellow Casablanca performer. She was the last surviving cast member until her death on May 1, 2016.[21]
  • Joy Page, the stepdaughter of studio head Jack L. Warner, as Annina Brandel, the young Bulgarian refugee
  • John Qualen as Berger, Laszlo's Resistance contact
  • S. Z. Sakall (credited as S. K. Sakall) as Carl, the waiter
  • Dooley Wilson as Sam. Wilson was one of the few American-born members of the cast. A drummer, he had to fake playing the piano. Even after shooting had been completed, producer Wallis considered dubbing over Wilson's voice for the songs.[22]

Notable uncredited actors are:

  • Marcel Dalio as Emil the croupier. Dalio had been a star in French cinema, appearing in Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu.
  • Helmut Dantine as Jan Brandel, the Bulgarian roulette player married to Annina Brandel
  • Gregory Gaye as the German banker who is refused entry to the casino by Rick
  • Torben Meyer as the Dutch banker who runs "the second largest banking house in Amsterdam"
  • Corinna Mura as the guitar player who sings "Tango Delle Rose" (or "Tango de la Rosa") and later accompanies the crowd on "La Marseillaise"
  • Frank Puglia as a Moroccan rug merchant
  • Richard Ryen as Colonel Heinze, Strasser's aide
  • Dan Seymour as Abdul the doorman
  • Gerald Oliver Smith as the Englishman whose wallet is stolen
  • Norma Varden as the Englishwoman whose husband has his wallet stolen

Much of the emotional impact of the film, for the audience in 1942, has been attributed to the large proportion of European exiles and refugees who were extras or played minor roles (in addition to leading actors Paul Henreid, Conrad Veidt and Peter Lorre), such as Louis V. Arco, Trude Berliner, Ilka Grünig, Ludwig Stössel, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, and Wolfgang Zilzer. A witness to the filming of the "duel of the anthems" sequence said he saw many of the actors crying and "realized that they were all real refugees".[23] Harmetz argues that they "brought to a dozen small roles in Casablanca an understanding and a desperation that could never have come from Central Casting".[24] Even though many were Jewish or refugees from the Nazis (or both), they were frequently cast as Nazis in various war films, because of their accents.

Jack Benny may have appeared in an unbilled cameo, as was claimed by a contemporary newspaper advertisement and in the Casablanca press book.[25][26][27] When asked in his column "Movie Answer Man", critic Roger Ebert first replied, "It looks something like him. That's all I can say."[26] In a later column, he responded to a follow-up commenter, "I think you're right. The Jack Benny Fan Club can feel vindicated".[28]


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