Roles I Wish Had Been Played By Different Actors

[will.15]

Sometimes when reading a book that had not yet been filmed I became an imaginary casting agent. I read Catch 22 before the movie was made and one actor stood out to me as fitting the character in the novel perfectly. Orr, Yossarian's roommate, is described as being a short, goofy looking imp with an idiot grin on his face. That sounded like Micheal J. Pollard to me, so I was very disappointed when the movie came out and I saw Bob Balaban playing the character in a deliberate, serious manner, which was not at all like the character in the book.

[will.15]

I wish Henry Fonda instead of Burt Lancaster had been cast as Shirley Booth's husband in Come Back Little Sheba.

[charliekane]

name='will.15']I wish Henry Fonda instead of Burt Lancaster had been cast as Shirley Booth's husband in Come Back Little Sheba.

Might have been interesting, although I think Burt does a good job in it..

[Wicked Lady]

I wish Alec Baldwin had kept going as Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford bores me to tears).

[CaptainWaggett]

I wish Robert Donat hadn't turned down Secret Agent and had been well enough to do Sabotage. And The Way to the Stars would have been even more perfect if Asquith had been able to get his first choice of Burgess Meredith instead of Douglass Montgomery.

[batman]

Peeping Tom would have been much better IMHO if Dirk Bogarde (or even Laurence Harvey) had played Mark. Bogarde proved on several occasions that he was more than capable of playing such a role and Harvey's 'cold' screen presence could also have worked a treat. At least his 'dead' eyes gave an indication that there was actually something going on behind them, unlike Carl Boehm's.

[torinfan]

name='CaptainWaggett']I wish Robert Donat hadn't turned down Secret Agent and had been well enough to do Sabotage. And The Way to the Stars would have been even more perfect if Asquith had been able to get his first choice of Burgess Meredith instead of Douglass Montgomery.

Robert Donat in Sabotage would have been great. I am guess he would have had John Loder's role as the detective?

[Wicked Lady]

name='torinfan']Robert Donat in Sabotage would have been great. I am guess he would have had John Loder's role as the detective?

Robert Donat in anything would have been great.

[torinfan]

name='Wicked Lady']Robert Donat in anything would have been great.

True enough!

[batman]

name='Wicked Lady']Robert Donat in anything would have been great.

Except The Inn of the Sixth Happiness .... definitely a film too far for the dying Donat. As well as being miscast he looks desperately frail and ill (which of course he was) and is unable IMHO to bring any credibilty to the part.



Lease of Life would have been the perfect swansong for him, just as The Shootist was for John Wayne.

[CaptainWaggett]

name='batman']Except The Inn of the Sixth Happiness .... definitely a film too far for the dying Donat. As well as being miscast he looks desperately frail and ill (which of course he was) and is unable IMHO to bring any credibilty to the part.

Which reminds me that I can't, offhand, think of any roles for which a white actor is made up to look black/Japanese/Chinese etc that I wouldn't rather had been played by someone else. Except Kenneth Williams and Bernard Bresslaw in Carry on Up the Khyber. And the cast of The Thief of Bagdad but they hardly bother with make-up.

[HUGHJAMPTON]

name='CaptainWaggett']Which reminds me that I can't, offhand, think of any roles for which a white actor is made up to look black/Japanese/Chinese etc that I wouldn't rather had been played by someone else. Except Kenneth Williams and Bernard Bresslaw in Carry on Up the Khyber. And the cast of The Thief of Bagdad but they hardly bother with make-up.

Arthur Lowe, as Dr Munda in Oh Lucky Man, he's not bad.

[Wicked Lady]

name='CaptainWaggett']Which reminds me that I can't, offhand, think of any roles for which a white actor is made up to look black/Japanese/Chinese etc that I wouldn't rather had been played by someone else. Except Kenneth Williams and Bernard Bresslaw in Carry on Up the Khyber. And the cast of The Thief of Bagdad but they hardly bother with make-up.

Very true, CaptainWaggett!



Mickey Rooney playing Yunioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's leaps immediately to mind.



*shudder*

[batman]

Lee J Cobb played a Chinese warlord in The Left Hand of God with James Cagney and Marlon Brando played a chap from Okinawa in Teahouse of the August Moon.



Neither of them were particularly credible.

[Santonix]

I can't help thinking that Vera Miles, who I know was the original choice for the part , would have been much better than Kim Novak in Vertigo.

[torinfan]

name='CaptainWaggett']Which reminds me that I can't, offhand, think of any roles for which a white actor is made up to look black/Japanese/Chinese etc that I wouldn't rather had been played by someone else. Except Kenneth Williams and Bernard Bresslaw in Carry on Up the Khyber. And the cast of The Thief of Bagdad but they hardly bother with make-up.

There wasn't much done with the makeup in "Seventh Voyage of Sinbad" either but maybe it wasn't really needed. I like how Jennifer Jones was made up to look Eurasian, as the phrase was used, in "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing."

[Mr Sloane]

Georgia Brown as Nancy in Oliver!

Tommy Steele ( or anyone!) as Bert in Mary Poppins

Angela Lansbury as Mame.

Cary Grant as Linus in Sabrina.

[Steve Crook]

name='CaptainWaggett']Which reminds me that I can't, offhand, think of any roles for which a white actor is made up to look black/Japanese/Chinese etc that I wouldn't rather had been played by someone else. Except Kenneth Williams and Bernard Bresslaw in Carry on Up the Khyber. And the cast of The Thief of Bagdad but they hardly bother with make-up.

But then you wouldn't have had Conrad Veidt in The Thief of Bagdad. Neither would you have had Flora Robson as the Chinese Dowager Empress Tzu-Hsi and Robert Helpmann as the obviously Chinese Prince Tuan in 55 Days at Peking (1963)



Steve

[billy bentley]

I think Ray Winstone should have played both of the Kray Brothers !

[didi-5]

name='Mr Sloane']Tommy Steele ( or anyone!) as Bert in Mary Poppins

.

Ah but Dick Van Dyke was somehow so inept as a Cockney you had to like him.



Ethel Merman as Mama Rose in Gypsy.

Lena Horne as Julie in Show Boat.