Why would that have prevented Gene Roddenberry from offering the role for what was a pilot episode at the time? There was no guarantee of a series, and indeed, the first Star Trek pilot went unsold. Lindsey could have turned down the role because he was already in a series, even if Goober wasn’t a major character. And I regard the story as plausible since it was independently verified by Ernest Borgnine.
With all due respect to Ernest Borgnine, I still don’t believe it. As early as the The Lieutenant era, Roddenberry told Nimoy he had him in mind for a part in a science-fiction pilot he was working on. He never envisioned anyone else playing Spock.
Steven Spielberg initially offered the role of Alan Grant in Jurassic Park to Harrison Ford. Ford declined and Sam Neill was cast.
The story goes that Van Johnson had already agreed to play the role of Elliott Ness in the TV version of The Untouchables, then backed out the weekend before shooting was to start, paving the way for last-second replacement Robert Stack.
And then there was Genevieve Bujold on (or not on) Star Trek: Voyager.
Huh. I heard after Dr. No Jack Lord wanted more money and equal billing to continue playing Felix Leiter in the Bond series. They went with other actors instead.
She didn’t turn down the part of Janeway, though. She and the producers mutually agreed that she wasn’t right for the part and she was released from her contract. And the role didn’t make Kate Mulgrew famous. She had previously starred in Kate Loves a Mystery and had several guest-starring roles in other series.
To the point that she had actually shot shot one or two days’ worth of scenes before departing the show. My recollection from that time is that Bujold hadn’t done much television work (at least, not episodic television in which she had a recurring, lead role), and was unpleasantly surprised at what the production schedule was like.
I have a hard time swallowing this too. George Lindsey as Spock sounds like an answer to a “worst possible miscasting” question. I envision a scene like this:
Uhura: Captain, the away team is reporting unusual seismic activity on the planet.
Spock: Tell 'em Spock says “hey”.
A lot of other actors. The character has been played by nine different actors in the twelve productions he has appeared in. That’s one more than the number of actors who’ve played James Bond.
“Captain, I recommend you listen to C&W, 'cause it’s *real *music 'bout *real *people!” :o
I wonder if the writer of that article ever considered the possibility that Ernest was pulling his leg (or that Lindsay had pulled his).
Uhura: Hey-ling frequencies open.
Go to your room
I don’t think Marilyn Monroe turned down the role of Holly Golightly. I think the casting department and director didn’t want her. The person who wanted her was Truman Capote, who had envisioned her in the role when he wrote the book. They told him she wasn’t young enough (in the book, Holly is supposed to be about 20, and Monroe was 35). Then they went and cast practically middle-aged Audrey Hepburn (I’m kidding-- she was three years younger than Monroe, but still much older than Golightly was in the book), which enraged Capote. Apparently he found out that the screenwriter had been told to rewrite for Hepburn, after he (that is, Capote) had said to write for Monroe.
An example I thought was pretty famous, but so far has not been mentioned, was Bela Lugosi turning down the monster in Universal’s 1931 Frankenstein, so the studio chose the unknown William Pratt, and renamed him “Karloff.” I’m not sure when he picked up the “Boris.” After having decided to go with an unknown, the studio built a whole publicity stunt around the unknown nature of the actor playing the monster, and didn’t use his image or name in any of the pre-release posters and trailers. The film not only made his career, but made his image iconic.
Interestingly, Lugosi was not the original actor cast to play Dracula, Lon Chaney was. But Chaney had kept the fact that he was ill a secret, and he died of throat cancer before filming for* Dracula *began-- just before-- so a actor who’d played the role on stage was hastily brought in. He didn’t speak English particularly well, which is the reason for his detached performance-- very, very different most likely, from what Chaney would have done. He most likely would have played a pathetic vampire tired of living forever, for whom you almost felt sorry. Lugosi was just evil.
Even more interesting was the fact that years later, Karloff turned down the role of the Thing in* The Thing from Another World* (aka simply The Thing), which role went to James Arness. Now, I’m not saying that this role made Arness’s career, or even got him noticed, so that he got cast in Gunsmoke (which was recently toppled as the longest-running prime time show when L&O:SVU went in for a 21st season; L&O:TOS ran an equal number of seasons, but fewer total episodes), but the role did go to a nobody who later became famous.
I liked the story I heard about John Denver knocking back the lead role in An Officer and a Gentleman. He said that he had read the script and thought that it was rubbish. After seeing the completed movie he realised that he simply lacked the imagination to see how it would work as a movie.
You’re just mad you didn’t think of it first.
Didn’t he have a cameo as a sniper in training?
Harrison Ford turned down Rob Reiner’s role, too. He didn’t think he’d want to be on a show that played bigotry for laughs. He kind be kinda… literal, no?
Grant Goodeve continues to act, and has done a lot of voiceover work over the years. It sounds like he has had a long and scandal-free career.
He’s also done some work in Christian media, although he’s not in-your-face the way some other actors have been (i.e. Kirk Cameron).
I’d love Die Hard with Nick Nolte. But could you IMAGINE Die Hard with Harrison Ford or, g-d forbid… BURT REYNOLDS!!! More like Die Hard Laughing. Ford would’ve done great at getting beaten up and also being REALLY pissed off, but Burt… oh, no. Just no.
The same year that Reeve played a homosexual in Deathtrap