I can’t blame you, because I’ve read this in supposedly authoritative places, but it turns out not to be true:
http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/reagan.asp
This has shown up on the SDMB many times, so it’s a widespread story.
Hey, I liked Lazenby. Liked him better than Roger Moore as James Bond, truth be told. I think most people were just annoyed that he wasn’t Connery.
Chuck Connors as Geronimo. You know, that blue eyed Indian.
A lot of musicals have non-singers that Just Shouldn’t Be There. E.g., Jim Broadbent in “Moulin Rouge.” (Great actor, can’t sing at all.) Basically all the leads in “Paint Your Wagon.” Many of the “singers” in “Tommy” (most notably Jack Nicholsen). Such travesties should be considered a sep. category.
Absolutely right on the miscast (not only a miscast, but an affront to Asians) but the character was Japanese.
So you, like me, are pretending that Dracula: Dead and Loving It never happened? Wise move, my friend.
It’s strange that he quit making movies after 1981’s History of the World: Part I. I wonder why.
Stole mine, dammit! This was very much an epic bit of miscasting. I love Lucy, but the woman had the voice of a frog. A frog with strep throat.
The only character in that movie I could stand.
Minnie Driver - An Ideal Husband
Meg Tilly - Valmont
Both of them nealry ruined their respective movies for me.
B-movie time:
Alexandra Paul in Christine. I enjoyed the book. Paul’s character, Leigh, was described as the most beautiful girl Arnie had ever seen. Apparently, Arnie didn’t get out much based on the casting choice.
She also managed to deliver one of the worst lines ever spoken in the Western Hemisphere in the worst possible way: “God, I hate rock & roll.”
You know what sweetie? It hates you more. Oh, and could someone buy this woman an ass?
Will Smith as Jim West in Wild Wild West. Now, I like Will Smith fine, but I don’t know WTF they were thinking with that one. Actually, the move simply doesn’t do the TV show justice, and the TV show was pretty cheesy.
Thanks! Wow, and I originally heard this story from one of the executives at the film studio where I worked, so it really must have made the rounds! The guy who told me was quite the expert in film lore.
Another Paul Verhoeven fiasco: Starship Troopers. Forgetting about its relative merits as a Heinlein adaptation, a bigger problem is that th entire population of Buenos Aires is so incredibly Anglo. It looks like Los Angeles invaded and colonized the place. You’d never guess at the city’s real history from the depiction here.
And that’s even wthout the hints dropped in the book that the hero had Filipino ancestry. You could see that something was severely out of whack even if you’d never picked the book up.
I always thought Leslie Howard was miscast as Ashley Wilkes in GWTW.
And I disliked Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars. Jodie Foster said that the role was offered to her originally, but Disney wouldn’t let her do it. I think she would have rocked in the role.
Didn’t Ava Gardner play Lorne Greene’s daughter, for chrissakes, in Earthquake? She looked old enough to be his mother.
It had that cool Sensurround.
Oy. And I’m once again reminded that I’m…I’m…a grown up.
hyperventilate
Keanu Reeves as Don John in Much Ado About Nothing; I mean, I know he’s an easy target, but I don’t actually hate him at all (I even thought he was perfect for The Matrix), but his usual deadpan woodenness was just awful against the vibrant performances of the top-notch cast of that movie.
When the Robert Altman film Nashville came out in the 70’s, our local paper’s critics were so violently divided in their opinions that the paper printed two reviews side by side. I’ll never forget a particular line in each review:
“Henry Gibson, stunningly cast against type…”
“Henry Gibson, woefully miscast…”
Don Cheadle as killer Mouse Alexander in DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS.
I mean too-smooth Denzel was bad enough as Easy Rawlins but I hate hate hate Don Cheadle.
I’ll second this - the ral problem for Lazenby was they cast him in the worng movie (he should have been in "you Only live Twice, with Connery signing off with OHMSS - makesmore sense) and having him work with a first time director. Apart from his silly, girly run. I thought Lazenby was pretty darn good.
And my 2c on miscast - Cruise/Kidman in “Eyes Wide Shut”. Shoulda been Beatty/Benning!
mm
How does it make more sense? Lazenby should have done “You Only Live Twice (1967)”, then Connery should have come back to do OHMSS (1969). Of course, Connery did come back, after Lazenby flopped, to do “Diamonds are Forever (1971)” before passing the torch to Roger Moore. I liked Lazenby too, and Diana Rigg as the Bond girl was a perfect cast!