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Movie Roles That Stars Turned Down

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by YankeeFan, Jul 24, 2010.

  1. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Walken actually was considered for Han Solo, as was Kurt Russell and Nolte. Sissy Spacek, Cindy Williams, Jodie Foster and Teri Nunn auditioned for Leia and Robby Benson and William Katt tried out for Luke Skywalker.
     
  2. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    And when the role went to Mark Hamill, he got out of playing David Bradford in "Eight is Enough." He played David in the pilot but Grant Goodeve was hired to replace him in the ensuing series.
     
  3. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Eight is Enough was a cursed show. Hamill was in a wreck and messed up his face shortly after the pilot. The first mom, Diana Hyland(?) died after the first season from cancer (she was living with John Travolta at the time) throw in the OD of Lani O'Grady and the drug problems of Nicholas and Willie Aames and the mental issues of a couple of the sisters.
     
  4. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I knew there was a bunch of famous people who auditioned, but couldn't remember them all. I do know that Harrison Ford was hired by Lucas just to read alongside a lot of them and did such a good job that he got the part as Han Solo.
     
  5. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Wow, I had no idea Lani O'Grady had died. I always looked at her as the big sister I never had. That's a sad story.
     
  6. kokane_muthashed

    kokane_muthashed Active Member

    Here's one that was new to me. Heard it for the first time yesterday while listening to the Doug Loves Movies podcast.

    Eric Stoltz was cast as Marty McFly, began filming Back to the Future, then was fired and replaced by Michael J. Fox. I can't imagine anyone but Fox in that role.

     
  7. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I remember that.

    Funny - in an age when we know who everyone in Hollywood is sleeping with - celebrities don't talk much about roles they turned down/didn't get.

    I always feel bad for actors that get dumped after making a pilot that gets picked up - like the son in Shit My Dad Says. You're a struggling actor, you audition, you make a pilot, the pilot gets picked up for Fall - and then you get dumped. It's like you are the groom at a wedding and once the bride gets to the altar, she brings in some other guy.

    And you have to stay for the ceremony and the reception.
     
  8. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    Dustin Hoffman was the original choice for Darth Vader.
     
  9. Jake_Taylor

    Jake_Taylor Well-Known Member

    Rock Hudson was the original choice to play Atticus Finch. There was a scheduling conflict and it turned out he couldn't do it. Jimmy Stewart was afraid it was too controversial and turned it down before Gregory Peck wound up with the role of his life.
     
  10. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    What that clip doesn't say is that the yowzariffic Melora Hardin was supposed to play Jennifer, Marty's girlfriend. But when Stoltz got canned, they let Melora go too because she's significantly taller than Fox.
     
  11. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Along those lines, the first time George's dad appeared on Seinfeld (in "The Handicap Parking Space), it was not Jerry Stiller playing him. But before the episode aired in syndication, they re-shot those scenes with Stiller. The original Frank Costanza is lost to history.
     
  12. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    The original Morty Seinfeld was also replaced. He appears in one early episode, and then it's the one we all know and love in every one after.
     
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