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Casting Closed - Version 3 - Scary Tales of New York - Additional suggestions
Breakdown
Casting Director
Ali Coffey Casting
Production Type
Television
Location
Dublin
Producer
Sarah Jones, Steve Maher, Mark Warren
Company
Impossible Factual
Summary
Thank you so much for all of the tapes and suggestions thus far.
We are still accepting suggestions for these roles only:
Raymond Fernandez
George Metesky
Please do send on any new suggestions you may have or feel free to highlight any we may not have requested tapes from as yet.
Many thanks,
Dawn
Older message:
Hi there,
There's been a change and the character of Burton Turkus is now replaced with William O'Dwyer and the character of Frank Pasqua has been replaced with Daniel Kriesberg. Please apply or send suggestions of any actors who would fit the bill.
Many thanks,
Dawn
Older Message:
Hello actors and agents,
We are working on casting for a Docu-drama Television Project and we would love to receive your suggestions/applications asap.
You will see physical descriptions and a link to an image where available of each character - these characters are based on real people so we're keen to hear from people similar to the physical briefs as the scenes will be intercut with photos and footage. Also please be sure to note accents in each description.
Summary:
Iconic stories from the age of Noir, (1930’s-1950’s), from the “Lonely Hearts Killers” to “Murder Incorporated”, delivered in the cynical, pitiless hard-boiled voice of the great crime novelists of the era - Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Jim Thompson, James M Cain and Patricia Highsmith… and with the visual flair and blackly comic drama of the Cohen Brothers. Our uniquely restored colour footage sets the epic stage. The dialogue and scenes is lifted and adapted straight from contemporary police and court statements, testimony and newspaper accounts. Real stories, real drama performed by real actors.
We are committed to fair processes in all areas of casting focusing on diversity, equity & inclusion. Please suggest suitable actors of all ethnicities, abilities, and orientation.
We can only get back to those who fit the bill. If that's not you/your client, thanks so much and we'll see you next time.
Thanks a mill,
Dawn
Production Dates
w/c 17th and/or 24th Oct – Recon (6 days)
Fees
Files
ROLES
Abe ‘Kid Twist’ Reles
Playing age: 25 - 45 years old
This role is portraying a real person, see image in link.
Physical:
Male,30s/40’s, Olive skinned, Short black hair (curled/kinked) dark eyes. Clean shaven – 5 O’clock shadow. Thick set/heavy – he is a physical, violent enforcer. 5 feet 2 inches Has a baritone voice and a lisp - described as sounding like somebody gargling marbles. Native born New Yorker – Strong Brooklyn accent. The child of Austrian Jewish Immigrants. Self assured arrogant, swaggering.
Brutal ‘Murder Inc’ hitman and stool pigeon, when captured Reles
provides law enforcement with an unprecedented in-depth account of
every hit carried out by his team of assassins based out of a candy
store in Brownsville. His testimony is matter of fact and an
unvarnished description of the savagery of Mafia murders that sends
the most senior mob boss ever sentenced to death in the United States
to the chair. Reles’ own death is shrouded in mystery – a six storey
fall from a window while under police protection in Coney Island.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_001 Abe ‘Kid Twist’ Reles 1.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
William O'Dwyer
Playing age: 46 - 59 years old
This role is portraying a real person, see image in link.
(in his late 40’s/50’s)
Born in County Mayo, (Bohola) in 1890. Immigrated to the US in 1910 after spending time in Spain training to be a Priest. Once in NY he became a cop – studying law at night school and qualifying in 1923. By ’39 he was Kings County DA and in charge of the successful prosecution of the gang of organized crime hit men ‘Murder Inc’ - Using the key testimony of stool
pigeon Abe Reles.
After an impressive war he was elected the 100 th Mayor of NYC. – (He sang ‘It is a Great Day for the Irish’ at his 1946 inauguration).
Though the Murder Inc. case was the foundation of his Democratic political career later there would be suspicion around his failure to prosecute Albert
Anastasia the ultimate head of MI, the death of Reles in police custody and his rumored political connections with Frank Costello – boss of the Luciano NY Crime family.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: William O'Dwyer 2.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Ruth Snyder
Playing age: 23 - 44 years old
This role is portraying a real person, see image in link.
Physical:
Female, Late 20s/early/mid 30s, white (Scandinavian family background) bobbed blond hair and blue eyes, 5 feet 6 inches
A former secretary turned housewife from Queen’s Village she and her
lover Judd Grey brutally kill her husband Albert Snyder. She has
insured Albert with a ‘Double Indemnity’ policy – one that will pay
out twice the insured amount if he dies in an accident – including if
he is the victim of a violent crime. Ruth will tell the story from
her viewpoint, claiming Judd drove her to kill. This crime and Ruth as
portrayed in the tabloid press inspires the whole genre of hardboiled
fiction and film noir – from ‘Double Indemnity’ to ‘The Postman Always
Rings Twice’, Raymond Chandlers work to the movies of Billy Wilder.
Our account will use Ruth's own words to strip back some of that
fictionalised depiction of her as a glamourous manipulative femme
fatale to reveal the real flawed and damaged human.
Audition Instructions:
Sides: PTC_003 - Ruth Snyder.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Judd Gray
Playing age: 25 - 49 years old
This role is portraying a real person, see image in link.
Physical:
From New Jersey – Ruth Snyder’s lover and willing accomplice in the murder of her husband. His version of events is compiled into the book ‘Doomed Ship’in which he insists he was tempted and coerced to murder by Ruth Snyder. He is variously described as meek and weak and after his arrest turns to the church to assuage his deep feelings of guilt both for the affair and murder and his abandonment of his wife and daughter.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_004 - Judd Gray.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Lillian ‘Ma’ Hickey
Playing age: 45 - 70 years old
This role is portraying a real person, see image in link.
Physical:
Female, mid to late 50s, White, hair dark running to grey. She is native born East Coast American – not strongly accented.
Character:
‘Ma’ Hickey looks after Ruth Snyder during her confinement at Sing Sing up to execution. Years after the execution, Lillian reveals to the press the realities of befriending the nation’s most hated woman. She is sympathetic and has almost motherly feelings toward Ruth – though is not under any illusions about the brutality of Ruth’s crime.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_005 - Lillian ‘Ma’ Hickey.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Martha Beck
Playing age: 23 - 45 years old
This role is portraying a real person, please see image in link.
Physical:
Character:
A nurse from Florida, Martha Beck one half of the serial killer couple known as the ‘Lonely Hearts Killers’. As a child Martha was mercilessly bullied and abused. She has a glandular problem that amongst other things accelerated puberty and caused her to gain weight. A seriously damaged individual even before her meeting with the sociopath Raymond Fernandez, in her in-depth media interviews and court testimony she is committed to showing the world her love for him and how his rejection drove her to kill to keep him close and faithful. Between them it is likely they carried out up to 20 murders of women they met through magazine lonely hearts columns, (and in some cases those women’s children). Martha believes Raymond Fernandez loves her til the very end.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_006 - Martha Beck.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Raymond Fernandez
Playing age: 22 - 46 years old
Physical:
Character:
Raymond Fernandez was born in Hawaii to Spanish parents, former spy, conman and the lead in the murderous pair known as the ‘Lonely Hearts Killers’. He and his lawyers paint Beck as the driving force behind the killings. She is not and initially at least was another of his victims.
Audition Instructions:
Sides: PTC_007 - Raymond Fernandez.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Esther H. Henne
Playing age: 35 - 55 years old
This role is portraying a real person, please see image in link.
Physical:
Female, 40s, white, She is a well spoken woman from Pennsylvania.
Character:
Few came as close to being a victim of Beck and Fernandez as Esther. She gave multiple newspaper journalists an inside look into what it was like to be married to Fernandez. The pair divorced before he met murder victim Janet Fay.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_008 - Esther H. Henne.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
George Metesky
Playing age: 35 - 60 years old
Physical:
Character:
After years of hiding in plain sight, once arrested, Metesky wants the world to know that his hatred and resentment towards his former employers ‘Consolidated Edison Co’ drove him to plant dozens of bombs in public spaces across New York over 16 long years. The elusive ‘Mad Bomber’ taunts those chasing him with letters signed ‘FP’ and becomes the subject of the first modern ‘criminal profile’. – It turns out to be an incredibly accurate decription of Metesky.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_009 - George Metesky.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Dr. James A. Brussel
Playing age: 40 - 62 years old
This role is portraying a real person, please see image in link.
Physical:
Character:
Brussel pioneers criminal profiling in the hunt for the individual planting bombs at sites across the city of New York. With other lines of enquiry exhausted his friend Police Captain John Cronin asks Brussel to use his skills to analyse the bomber’s motives and next moves. His work becomes the foundation of offender profiling. Brussel himself is an attention seeker – addicted to the opiate ‘Demerol’ – which he regularly injects with little regard for privacy...
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_010 - Dr James A. Brussel.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Robert Irwin
Playing age: 25 - 45 years old
This role is portraying a real person, please see image in link.
Physical:
Character:
Irwin a talented artist and sculptor of waxworks is also a deeply disturbed young man. He is recovering from an attempt to emasculate himself and a stint in a state mental hospital when he moves into the New York rooming house of Mary Gedeon. He becomes infatuated with his landlady’s eldest daughter Ethel but his interest is not returned. Two years later he returns to the building looking for Ethel but not finding her he murders Mary, Ethel’s younger sister Veronica, (a photographic model who features in true crime magazines) and a lodger. He is captured after a nationwide manhunt and the sensational paid confession he gives to a tabloid almost sends him to the electric chair. He is saved by a plea bargain and his clear history of mental health issues. He remains in secure institutions until his death in 1975.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_011 - Robert Irwin.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Ethel Kudner
Playing age: 19 - 35 years old
This role is portraying a real person, please see image in link.
Physical:
Female, Mid 20s, white, brunette hair, horn-rimmed eyeglasses.
Character:
Sister to murder victim Veronica Gedeon, Ethel is the object of Irwin’s affections. Prior to the murders Ethel and Irwin had been good friends although Irwin wanted more and when Ethel turns his proposal down he spirals out of control. The night of the murders he goes to her family home in the hope that she will be there. She provides insight into Irwin’s behaviour and her feelings of guilt at having escaped at the expense of her mother and sister.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_012 - Ethel Kudner.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Dr. Fredric Wertham
Playing age: 40 - 60 years old
This role is portraying a real person, please see image in link.
Physical:
Character:
One of Irwin’s only confidants Wertham is the psychiatrist who evaluated him for many years prior to his arrest for murder, Dr Wertham’s paper ‘The Prevention of Murder’ outlines how society failed Irwin and his victims.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_013 - Dr. Fredric Wertham.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
John McNally
Playing age: 20 - 35 years old
This role is portraying a real person.
Physical:
Male, Mid 20s, white. We know little about his back ground though he is almost certainly of Irish descent.
Character:
A petty crook with multiple convictions behind him, McNally is held as a material witness. As someone who was for a short time on the inside of the conspiracy he provides police with vivid descriptions of the various failed attempts to kill Malloy and the guilt of the other participants.
Audition Instructions:
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Joseph Murphy
Playing age: 22 - 35 years old
This role is portraying a real person, please see image in link.
Physical:
Male, Mid to late 20s, white, hair dark and short. Clean shaven. Murphy is an Irish immigrant. He has a severe drink problem and we would now describe him as having learning difficulties. His execution is stalled whilst experts argue over his capacity to plead.
Character:
Bartender and part of the Murder Trust. He had tried to warn Malloy about the plot to kill him but nonetheless carried on with the task. Murphy is one of the two that ultimately kill Malloy. He is easily swayed – destitute he sleeps on the couch in the speakeasy and is just as likely to be targeted by the ‘Murder Trust’ as Malloy.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_015 - Joseph Murphy.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Daniel Kreisberg
Playing age: 25 - 32 years old
This role is portraying a real person - there is no photo reference for this person.
Physical:
Male, late 20s. He is described as a sallow, thin, dark-haired man with a long
face. His ethnic origins are European Jewish - though he was born in New York.
Despite his protestations Kriesberg is an enthusiastic member of the gang that killed ‘Iron Mike’ Malloy. Kriesberg is a failed wholesale greengrocer - But he is also a ‘Pants Bandit’ - that is a stickup man who get’s his victims to remove their pants believing that they are less likely to pursue him down the
street and raise the alarm if they are pantless!
He is lying almost all of the time and like all of the gang seeks to play down his own role whilst blaming everyone else – Particularly using the dead ‘Tough Tony’ as the guy that bullied him into taking part. However self serving he is he does seem to genuinely believe he is simply providing for his family through crime.
It is however Daniel that inserts a gas pipe into Malloy’s mouth and finally hands-on kills the unconcious ‘Iron Mike’.
Audition Instructions:
Tell us a little about yourself and why you’d be suited for this role.
Sides: PTC_016 - Frank Pasqua.jpg
The Casting Director has attached a file to the bottom of this job for your reference.
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
ATTACHMENTS
Actors age 18 and upwards
Playing age: 18-90 years old
*Please note the sides for actors aged over 18 may contain some swearing and sexual references.
If you are under 18 and would like to perform one of these scenes please get permission from a parent/guardian.
Audition instructions
Important tip: Turn the phone sideways and wipe the lens! Be sure to read our auditioncam® tips for success.
Sides: {{ sides.name }}
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