Casting director Mary Selway dies

Mary Selway, a casting director who matched actors with roles in films from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Gosford Park, has died at the age of 68.

Selway died of cancer in London, said staff at Twickenham Studios, where she had her office.

Born in Norwich, in 1936, Mary Selway attended the Italia Conti theatre school in London but quickly decided acting was not for her. She began to work in television casting, moving to the Royal Court Theatre and eventually to the cinema.

She went on to cast almost 100 films, working with the cream of British, American and European directors, including Robert Altman, Roman Polanski, Steven Spielberg, Sydney Pollack, Ridley Scott and Bertrand Tavernier.

She cast the residents of a funky west London neighbourhood for Notting Hill, the crew of a Napoleonic-era warship for Master and Commander and the occupants of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Selway once said the chief emotion felt by casting directors was guilt that they could not know all the actors in the world.

“There is this thing where you read a part for ‘fat ugly bloke’ and you think ‘Oh, there’s that bloke that I saw do fat ugly bloke’ and you can repeat easily, but what you should do is find that guy, but find other ones as well,” she told film web site Netribution.

Selway’s husband, Norman Rodway, died in 2001. She is survived by two daughters and her partner, Aileen Maizel.

Funeral details were not immediately available.