Famous roles turned down by actors

[ollie]

Anyone know any of these type of anecdotes,allthough possibly unsubstantiated,



1 patrick mcgoohan turned down THE SAINT,he didn't like the idea of the character having a different girlfriend every week.



2 Anthony newly,james booth,and lawrence harvey,all turned down ALFIE



3 Glen ford,and rock hudson were initially approached for the role of danny wilde in THE PERSUADERS



4 My fave,the role of Quint in JAWS was turned down by Ollie Reed,allthough robert Shaw was fantastic,that could have been interesting.



cheers Ollie

[DB7]

Albert Finney turned down the role of Lawrence of Arabia in Lean's epic.

[ollie]

DB7:

Albert Finney turned down the role of Lawrence of Arabia in Lean's epic.

eek! eek!



cheers Ollie.

[David Challinor]

My favourite is a great 'what might have been' from 1970s Hollywood, rather than these shores. Although I enjoy 'Close Encouters...' I don't think anyone would claim Richard Dreyfus is one of the acting giants in the film world - too theatrical for me. Imagine, for a few moments, how much more powerful the actor who turned down this part would have been...Steve McQueen.

[dar111]

I read Sterling Hayden turned down Quint in Jaws. He would have been great in the part.

[Marky B]

Jaws is one of my all time favourite films. I once read the part of Quint was offered to Charlton Heston,and the roles of Chief Brody and Hooper were going to be given to Paul Newman and Robert Redford. However,the bearded one thought such an all star billing would take away the thunder of its star "Bruce" the shark,amd instead opted for Robert Shaw,Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss.

Although a respected star in his own right,this propelled Robert Shaw into major stardom. Sadly,he died in 1978 of a heart attack,robbing this country of someone who could have been up there with Connery and Caine.

In reflection,the careers of Scheider and Dreyfuss did not escalate to the dizzy heights predicted at the time.

By the way,what happened to the bearded one...?

Ta Ta

Marky B thumbs_u



Smile you sonofa...

[DB7]

Hayley Mills, she had to turn down the role of Lolita in Kubrick's film because Disney felt it would damage her image.

[DB7]

Tony in Ottawa:

Patrick McGoohan is supposed to have turned down not only The Saint but also James Bond, and Noel Coward turned down the part of Dr. No.

James Mason also turned down the role of Hugo Drax - shame really as I'm sure he'd have been the perfect suave villain.

[smudge]

Yep - McGoohan turned down both Bond and the Saint for reasons of morality. Even in the first, half-hour Danger Man he tried to make the Drake character solve problems with his wits rather than at the end of the gun. Many times the villains were shot at the denoument, but rarely by Drake - and even then it was usually never Drake's gun.



McGoohan is reputed to have said at the time that he would never appear in something that his young family (all girls) could not watch...



Another role reversed was that originally producers wanted Kenneth More for the part of Jason King in the TV series DEPARTMENT S (?)



SMUDGE

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Spielberg had Tom Selleck in mind when he created Indiana Jones and indeed the part was written for him.



Selleck decided he wanted to stay doing "Magnum" on TV and turned down the part of Indy at the last moment.



Wonder if he's ever regretted it?





Threep

[Marky B]

Both John Wayne and Frank Sinatra were pencilled in for the role of Harry Callaghan before Clint Eastwood took the part (the mind boggles.

Lee J Cobb and Bing Crosby were considered for the role of detective Columbo,a part originally played on stage by Raymond Mitchell.

Ronnie Barker for the Frank Spencer part in Some Mothers...

Ronnie Barker,Enn Reitel and Jim Broadbent as Del Boy in in Only Fools...

Laurence Olivier,Richard Conte (Barzini) and John Marley (Jack Woltz) for the role of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather,which was taken by Marlon Brando who was screen tested for Laurence of Arabia.

I believe Cary Grant was considered for the Colonel Nicholson role in Bridge On The River Kwai.

As the debate for the new Bond intensifies,after George Lazenby was sacked as 007,Adam West (yes,Batman!) was about to sign the contract to play Bond when big Tam came into revive his role for one last time (at least under the Broccoli tag).

The name's B,Marky B secret

[DAVID RAYNER]

I read in a film book that Cary Grant was due to play the phantom in Hammer's 1962 version of The Phantom of The Opera. But the deal fell through and he was replaced with Herbert Lom.



Maybe it's just as well. Grant would have looked as totally out of place as the phantom as John Wayne did as Ghengis Khan in The Conqueror, or as the Roman centurion in The Greatest Story Ever Told, carrying his spear as though it were a Winchester 73.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

Patrick McGoohan is supposed to have turned down not only The Saint but also James Bond, and Noel Coward turned down the part of Dr. No

As I understood it, McGoohan turned down Bond, because it would prevent him from working on Dangerman and getting The Prisoner off the ground.

[Gibbie]

mysteriesofedgarwallace:

As I understood it, McGoohan turned down Bond, because it would prevent him from working on Dangerman and getting The Prisoner off the ground.

Actually, he wasn't into Bond. He is more like Danger Man than Bond. And, The Prisoner came much later.

[smudge]

You're right there Gibbie -



The offer (FIRST offer ?) of Bond would've fallen between the half-hour DANGER MAN and the 1hr series anyhow, so he could quite feasibly have been free to do it.



It'll be ages before anybody properly finds out, as McGoohan has in the past requested that a planned biography of himself be 'iced'. He is not a willing talker ; he even makes Number 6 seem verbose !



Shame really, because he has contributed a lot to the world of television. He wouldn't even talk about his piece-de-resistance, BRAND for the dvd release. I suppose he thinks that his work speaks for itself.



SMUDGE

[Gibbie]

Good point, Smudge, but I reckon that he's a very private man who probably values things that the Hollywood magazine crowd would love to split open to gaze at in their certain way.



In the entertainment world, it is best to let the work speak for itself and then go off and be your own person.



I hope he has a normal life.



Be seeing you.



Gibbie

[smudge]

I agree about his private life Gibbie, but have to say that I do wish he'd talk about his work.



I sometimes think that there has been so much tagged on or woven into THE PRISONER which is at best tenuous ; things which only he, really, could come out and say that it's bunkum !



SMUDGE

[Gibbie]

Agreed!



I did read that he wanted to leave the story a conundrum; in fact, it was an interview in the Carraze/Oswald book about the series.



If the author won't speak, then others will.



[ 14. September 2004, 17:48: Message edited by: Gibbie ]

[deckard]

I hear tell(please correct me if I'm wrong) that Burt Reynolds was actually cast as Han Solo in Star Wars but dropped out before filming started - go figure! Regards, Decks.

[Marky B]

I can't see Burt Reynolds ever considered forthe role of Han Solo,but I believe Kurt Russel was.

After watching The Battle of Britain the other night,I remember getting a large hardback from the library about the making of the film. When Harry Saltzman announced the cast,Rex Harrison was listed to play Keith Parks,the role eventually going to Trevor Howard.

Ta Ta

Marky B thumbs_u