Phyllis Huffman, 61; Cast Many Eastwood Movies

Phyllis Huffman, a veteran casting director whose long collaboration with filmmaker Clint Eastwood included work on “Unforgiven” and “Million Dollar Baby,” his two movies to win best picture Oscars, died Thursday in New York City after a brief illness. She was 61.

In a statement Friday, Eastwood called Huffman “a visionary casting director with a true sense of what makes an actor right for the role.”

“I completely trusted Phyllis with the casting duties on all my movies,” he said. “The industry has lost a true professional, and all of us at Malpaso [Productions, Eastwood’s company] have lost a loved family member.”

In an interview with The Times in 2004, Huffman, who cast more than 15 films for Eastwood, described the process of working with the celebrated actor/director.

“Sometimes it will be just one person we will talk about” for a role. “For example, when we did ‘Bird,’ it was Diane Venora, who played Chan, Charlie Parker’s wife. Clint wanted me to come to New York and look around the jazz scene.

“Diane came in, we put her on tape, I sent the tape back to him and he took one look at her and said, ‘That’s it.’ That was the end of that,” she said. “He is not a shopper. He knows what he likes when he sees it. “

Huffman said Eastwood preferred viewing tapes of auditions instead of watching the tryouts in person because he recalled how painful auditioning was for him and “he wants to spare the actor that.”

“He doesn’t meet actors,” she said. “We do everything on tape.... If he says, ‘He’s good, he’s really good,’ I know that this actor doesn’t have the job. If he looks at an actor and goes, ‘Show me that tape again,’ that means a done deal; the actor’s got the job.”

Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Huffman graduated from Webster University in St. Louis and worked for a time as a TWA flight attendant.

After moving to Los Angeles with her husband, actor David Huffman, in the mid-1970s, she started her career as a casting director at MTM Productions, which created numerous popular television shows of the era. She moved on to Paramount, where she worked for noted casting director Marion Dougherty.

When Dougherty joined Warner Bros., Huffman went with her, and it was there that she began working with Eastwood. The first film Huffman cast for him, sharing the credit with Susan Arnold, was “Honkytonk Man” in 1982. Other Eastwood movies Huffman cast included “Mystic River,” “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” “A Perfect World” and “Space Cowboys.”

She eventually became head of casting for Warner Bros.’ television division.

In February 1985, Huffman’s husband, 40, was stabbed to death in San Diego’s Balboa Park while trying to chase down a suspect in a mobile home burglary. The 16-year-old assailant was arrested and eventually sentenced to 26 years to life in prison.

Huffman, who spoke at the sentencing phase of the trial, credited Eastwood with helping her get her life back together and resume working. She moved back to New York and formed her own independent casting company and continued to work for Warner Bros., Hallmark Hall of Fame and Malpaso. She also remarried.

She is survived by her husband, Jules del Vecchio; sons Mathew and Philip Huffman; a stepson, Matthew del Vecchio; her mother, Grace Grennan; a brother, Chris Grennan; and a sister, Christine Stiller.

Services will be private.

Donations may be made to the David Huffman Memorial Scholarship, Webster University, 470 East Lockwood Ave., St. Louis, MO 63119.