Casting director and producer Don Phillips who helped launch the careers of such actors as Sean Penn, Matthew McConaughey and Mary Steenburgen, passed away on Thanksgiving Day from natural causes.
He would have turned 81 on Dec. 21.Phillips received his first break when he landed an entry-level job in the casting department of filmmaker Otto Preminger’s 1971 movie Such Good Friends.
Impressed by Phillips, Preminger took an ad in Variety and Backstage to praise his work on the film.The acknowledgement led to Phillips getting hired to do extras casting on Sidney Lumet’s Serpico starring Al Pacino with his job subsequently expanding to casting the entire film.
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