Marion Dougherty was an American casting director.
She is known for casting films such as Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Grease, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Escape from Alcatraz, Urban Cowboy, The World According to Garp, National Lampoon’s European Vacation, all four Lethal Weapon movies, and Batman (1989).
In 1963 Dougherty established her own casting company in New York, where she began casting local talent out of the theaters.
Dougherty became notable for her casting decisions, choosing to cast based on their acting abilities, as opposed to type casting based on appearance.
In 1972, with the release of Slaughterhouse-Five, Dougherty made history as being one of the first casting directors to receive an entire title card to list their credit.
From 1979 to 1999, Dougherty worked at Warner Brothers as the Vice President of casting.
In 1991, many prominent filmmakers and actors, including Clint Eastwood, Woody Allen and Al Pacino, attempted to convince the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to grant an honorary award to Dougherty. Unfortunately this dream of recognizing her was never accomplished, before her death in 2011.
She is the primary subject of the 2012 documentary Casting By.
Dougherty died December 4, 2011, in Manhattan, New York City, New York. She was 88.