After Sir Alec Guinness played George Smiley in a BBC adaptation of “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” John Le Carre supposedly said that Guinness was so perfect in the role, Le Carre now envisioned Guinness whenever he thought about George Smiley.
What actors have similarly defined literary characters in your mind? Any actor SO good in a role that, when you READ a book featuring that character, you can’t help envisioning the actor?
Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone
Pshaw…Sherlock Holmes: Jeremy Brett. 
Bond: Connery.
Lone Ranger: Clayton Moore
Philip Marlowe and/or Sam Spade: Bogie
Nick & Nora Charles: Powell & Loy
I beg to disagree…Holmes/Rathbone
And… Bond/Connery
Dracula/Lugosi
Harrison Ford is Indianna Jones.
Clint Eastwood is Dirty Harry.
and I want you to think of this. If a faithful version of The Dark Knight Returns was ever made.
Clint Eastwood would be the perfect Batman IMO.
William Shatner is Captain Kirk.
Ed O’Neil is Al Bundy.
Michael J. Fox is Alex Keaton.
Andre Braugher is Lt. Frank Pemberton.
James Earl Jones is your father, I mean Darth Vader.
No James Earl Jones is Simba’s dad.
Perhaps Simba and Luke are brothers?
Vivian Leigh = Scarlett
Clark Gable = Rhett
James Steward = Elwood
George Burns = God
Katherine Hepburn = Eleanor of Aquitane
And I agree–no one could ever play Nick and Nora as well as powell and Loy.
Katharine Hepburn- Jo from Little Women
Yaphet Kotto- G on Homicide
and ditto, Kallessa, on Rhett and Scarlett
Let’s see…
Hugh Jackman IS Wolverine. It’s incredible.
Sean Connery IS James Bond.
On the flipside, Han Solo IS Harrison Ford. Wrap your brain around that…
And of course, the only one who could do Yoda, Frank Oz is.
Maybe we should talk about laughable mis-casting…like that movie where John Wayne played Genghis Khan, or the one where Sean Connery played an immortal Egyptian-turned-Spaniard…
Indiana Jones IS Harrison Ford. I can’t see anyone else in the role.
When the movie version of My Fair Lady was being cast, producers wanted Cary Grant for the role of Professor Higgins, instead of Rex Harrison who had played the role on stage. Grant told them that if Harrison didn’t play the part, he wouldn’t even bother to see the movie.
Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. The kids were pretty nondescript (even cute little Dean Stockwell), but Peck was Atticus, exactly as written.
Also, Spencer Tracy as Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind. Jack Lemmon didn’t do terribly in the recent TV version, but Tracy is so dignified and skilled, I can’t see anyone else in the part. (Conversely, I thought George C. Scott did a better job than Fredric March as Matthew Brady, but either one could play the role just fine.)
Paul Reuben is and always will be Pee Wee to me.
Whenever I see John Goodman I think Roseanne.
All this talk about Vader, What about Luke? Mark Hammill (sp?)
Adam West is Batman,
Bob Denver is Gilligan,
and Michael Richards is Kramer
Forever and ever.
Maybe we should start a special thread just for Sherlock Holmes fans.
Basil Rathbone just never cut it for me. I saw Leonard Nimoy play Holmes on the stage in the '70s, and I thought he did a fine job…I also admire the old photos of William Gillette, who was the actor most identified with Holmes before Rathbone started making the movies. Peter Cushing, ehhh. John Barrymore did a nice job in 1922.
But Jeremy Brett just blew everyone out of the water in those 1980s BBC productions. He didn’t wear the stupid fucking deerstalker hat in London like everyone else did (Yeah, right, like a 1890s British gentleman would have worn a country hat in the city), for openers. He had ALL the tics and eccentricities down…the sudden bursts of manic athleticism rising from torpor, the pride, the wit. The two Watsons, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke, were also excellent (I lean slightly toward Burke’s characterization), allowing the Doctor to be a man of normal intelligence rather than the subhuman he’s often played as. The the screenwriters! Every time they diverged from the original stories, they IMPROVED them!
Fascinating footnote: Brett played Freddie Eynsford-Hill in the 1964 film version of MY FAIR LADY. Wild, huh?
Ernest Brognine will forever be Quentin McHale. Sorry, Tom Arnold fans, but he was just a poser.
A lot have already been mentioned, but here goes a few (sticking solely to literary characters):
Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lector in Silence of the Lambs
Spencer Tracey as Manuel in Captains Courageous
Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone in The Godfather
Marlon Brando (again) as Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire (do plays count as literature?)
Tom Hanks in Forest Gump
If we’re listing fictional characters altogether I’ll add:
Kevin Kline as Otto in A Fish Called Wanda
Robert Urich as “Spenser” in Spenser for Hire. Joe Montegna is a fine actor, but he most definietly isn’t Spenser, the only worse casting would have been to put Jaleel White into the roll.
Keith