Casting agent Mary Selway dies at 68

Mary Selway, a casting director who matched actors with roles in films from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Gosford Park, died of cancer April 21, according to staff at Twickenham Studios. She was 68. Born in Norwich, in eastern England, in 1936, Selway began her career in television casting, later taking her talents to the Royal Court Theater 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 neighborhood for Notting Hill, the crew of a Napoleonic-era warship for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and the students and faculty of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Selway once said that the chief emotion felt by casting directors was guilt that they could not know all the actors in the world. She is survived by Ileen Maisel, her partner of 14 years, and daughters Kate and Emma Buckley.