Dustin
Among many friends in New York City, Rita was close to Dustin Hoffman in the years before his discovery by Mike Nichols and his casting in “The Graduate”. In fact Rita accompanied Dustin for a seemingly disastrous audition for a musical. Mike Nichols somehow remembered the impression Dustin made at the audition (he didn’t get the job) but called him in for a screen test for his upcoming film “The Graduate”, and the rest is history.
[I appeared in an article featuring Dustin in "Life Magazine", some time after his 'discovery'... we are searching for a copy of this article. - Rita]
