Born as Mary Alice Mann on March 8, 1938, in Danville, Illinois, she later moved to Minneapolis, where she received a bachelor's degree in theater from the University of Minnesota. She was married to Don Finn, a theater director and professor of directing and acting at The Guthrie and California State University Fullerton, and had one child with him.
Career
In the early 1980s Finn was a beloved drama teacher at Holland High School in Holland, Michigan, where she challenged her students with difficult productions such as You Can't Take It with You. She also lectured in English Literature at Hope College in the early 70s. In 1981 the couple moved to Newport Beach, California, where Finn's career as a casting director began. She already had a handful of casting credits on her résumé, including The Untouchables (1987), when she established her own firm, Mali Finn Casting, in 1989. She boosted Leonardo DiCaprio's career by casting him in the James Cameron film Titanic (1997); she also cast Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential (1997). Finn discovered actor Brad Renfro when he was ten years old and cast him in Joel Schumacher's The Client (1994).
Finn cast almost 90 movies and television series during her career. Director Curtis Hanson worked with her on four of his films: L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys (2000), 8 Mile (2002), and Lucky You (2007).
^"Casting Director Mali Finn dies". Variety. December 3, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2010. Mali Finn, casting director for films including "Titanic," "L.A. Confidential" and "The Matrix," died of melanoma Wednesday in Sonoma, Calif. She was 69.
