Movie Roles That Stars Turned Down

OJ Simpson was the first choice for The Terminator

 

I'd have nailed her anyway.

 

Winkler was a serious candidate to play a Hanson Brother or Killer Carlson in "Slap Shot," in which Al Pacino was slated to play Reggie Dunlop until he got a wee bit too full of himself.

The list of actors who unsuccessfully tried out for "Slap Shot" includes some of the biggest names of the '70s and '80s.

 

Y'know, you should write a book about that.

 

That would have ended up to be typecasting.

 

Arnold swears by Cameron, but I remember reading Leo and Kate Winslet lamenting about how difficult he was to deal with on Titanic. He's an incredible director, but working for an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist could be a bit rough.

 

And that's one of the great injustices of movie (Bond geek) history. By the time Brosnan was free to do it, the scripts were crap. They totally pussified 007. Fortunately, the series has seen been rebooted to make Craig more Bond-like.

Oddly enough, Dalton was the choice to take over after Connery wanted out after You Only Live Twice. Dalton declined. Moore was the second choice, but was unable to do it because of contractual obligations for The Saint. Enter George Lazenby. That didn't work out, so SC returned for Diamonds Are Forever. They wanted someone younger than Connery, and Moore came on board for Live and Let Die. Again, oddly enough, Moore is three years older than SC.

 

I remember hearing years ago that Steve McQueen passed on a lot of things in the late 1970s including First Blood and The Bodyguard. There were some other high profile ones as well, but those stood out for me.

 

McQueen was the original choice for The Sundance Kid, but wanted top billing over Newman. If you've seen The Towering Inferno, that's the reason one name was in the upper right and the other was in the lower left.
The Bodyguard was originally supposed to star McQueen and Diana Ross (I think Costner's haircut is a hat tip to McQueen). And I think Whitney Houston was originally going to do Dreamgirls (which is based on the Supremes) when it was first proposed.
Has it been mentioned that John Wayne and Frank Sinatra were first offered Dirty Harry? Wayne was so surprised by the success, he went and made McQ.

 

Originally, McQueen was going to play Butch Cassidy and Newman would have been Sundance. George Roy Hill signed on to direct the film and insisted the two swap roles. That's when McQueen bailed, but it's true that billing was an issue. Redford didn't come into the picture until after Hill resisted the studio's attempts to force him to accept first Marlon Brando and then Warren Beatty as replacements for McQueen. The studio backed down when Newman announced he would also quit unless Hill got his way and Redford got the part.

As for John Wayne, the story goes that he was asked to play Taggart in "Blazing Saddles." He thought the script was hilarious but declined because he thought it was too dirty for him to be involved, and the part went to Slim Pickens.

 

D'ya think?