Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Fran Bascom Dead at 86, Longtime Casting Director For DAYS OF OUR LIVES

Veteran casting director Fran Bascom died Sunday at age 86, her sister Lisa Green told TheWrap on Monday.

Bascom's credits included DAYS OF OUR LIVES (1992-2007), DESIGNING WOMEN and EVENING SHADE.

According to Green, Bascom had not been ill, but had felt under the weather for the past couple of weeks. However, she began to feel ill on Sunday, and was transported to Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. Bascom's cause of death has not yet been determined.

Bascom also served as casting director on televisions shows such as LOU GRANT, THE LAST RESORT, WOMEN OF THE HOUSE and ISIS.

Her theater casting credits including "National Pastime," "Leap" and "Ernest in Love."

Bascom's most recent credit on IMDB is the 2012 Hank Williams biopic The Last Ride, which starred Henry Thomas, Jesse James, Fred Dalton and Kaley Cuoco.

During her career Bascom was nominated for 15 Artios Awards from the Casting Society of America including 9 times for DAYS OF OUR LIVES.

Alison Sweeney wrote about Bascom in her book, "All the Days of My Life: So Far".
I was a bundle of nervous energy leading up to the audition. When the day finally arrived--a Monday after school--I drove to the interview, which was with Fran Bascom, Days' casting director. Fran, who is still in charge of casting for Days, is a great lady, and I was really anxious about meeting her. But she was so nice that, almost right away, I felt much more comfortable. As for the reading itself, I certainly did my best but wasn't really sure how well (or how poorly) I had done.

As I was walking out the door, Fran stopped me in my tracks and pulled me aside. "Ali", she said, "you did a great job."

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