Renée Asherson(1915-2014)

Asherson's serendipitous casting as French Princess Katherine in Heinrich V. (1944) was the result of Olivier fearing that 'Vivien Leigh was too big a star and might eclipse his own performance in the title role'.

Larry [Laurence Olivier] saw me when I was at the Mercury, doing a revival of the Mask of Virtue, the play in which Vivien Leigh had made her name. Apparently they had come to see the play and then asked me to do a test for Henry V - I didn't even know Larry was filming it. Larry also asked Janet Burnell who was playing my mother to test for the Queen, and we both got the parts. It had been intended that Vivien should play the Princess but, after Gone with the Wind, her agents didn't think it was a big enough part for her.