Was Ronald Reagan ever meant to star in Casablanca, according to Sheldon Hall?

Sheldon Hall says no, not realistically. Reagan was named as the lead in a Warner Brothers press release in the first week of January 1942, just after the title changed from Everybody Comes to Rick's, but Reagan later said nobody at the studio had spoken to him. Producer Hal Wallis had Humphrey Bogart in mind from the start and the film was written for him.

Hall says the George Raft story runs the other way: Raft asked Jack Warner for the part, and Wallis and Michael Curtiz refused.
Bogart had made around 50 films, mostly as villains or B-movie leads, before High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon made him a star.
Ingrid Bergman was under personal contract to David O. Selznick, who agreed the loan to Warner Brothers and collected the fee.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-10-29). Read the whole episode summary →

▸More from this episode

Q2Who wrote Casablanca's screenplay, according to Pamela Hutchinson on In Our Time?Q3How did the censors change Casablanca's love scene, according to Sheldon Hall?Q4What does Pamela Hutchinson say As Time Goes By means in Casablanca?Q5How does Casablanca argue against isolationism, according to Pamela Hutchinson and Ian Christie?Q6Why was Casablanca kept from North African audiences, according to the In Our Time panel?Q7Why were Casablanca's makers later targeted by HUAC, according to the In Our Time panel?Q8Why did Casablanca become one of the world's favourite films, according to In Our Time?

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