# odd castings in movies and tv shows

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-castings-in-movies-and-tv-shows/352427>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 12, 2006, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-castings-in-movies-and-tv-shows/352427 "2006-04-12T20:17:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-castings-in-movies-and-tv-shows/352427/41 "2006-04-17T15:17:04Z")

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> [@Spoons](#):
>
> Nobody’s mentioned well-known Rat Packer and boozehound Dean Martin playing an airline pilot in the original _Airport_? Around the time it came out (1970?) he was hosting his own show, which took place in Dean’s swinging bachelor pad where the drinks were always flowing, and sexy Golddiggers danced.
> 
> So upon hearing that Dean Martin was playing an airline pilot, you half expected to find him leaving the cockpit, grabbbing a cocktail from a stewardess (and possibly grabbing the stewardess), and making polite but loaded-with-innuendo chitchat with the passengers.
> 
> Nope. He played it straight and did fairly well with it too. Good for him, but it just seemed to be a weird casting choice at the time.

Now, now, Dino did some fine straight movie acting long before Airport. And IMO, his work in the original \*\*Ocean’s Eleven \*\* – a Rat Pack film, to be sure, but one that mostly plays straight – is the _only_ redeeming performance on the screen. The rest of the cast is unbearable.

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**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-castings-in-movies-and-tv-shows/352427/42 "2006-04-17T15:38:30Z")

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Sam Malone (Ted Danson) in Saving Private Ryan always throws me for a loop.

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**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/odd-castings-in-movies-and-tv-shows/352427/43 "2006-04-17T17:05:30Z")

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How about casting an over-the-hill, Spanish-accented, perennial TV “guest star” Ricardo Montalban as the genetically superior, vaguely Asian Khan Noonien Singh in _Star Trek_ – and then getting him back 15 years later to repeat the role in\* Star Trek II\*.

Oh yeah, someone has to say it, so

\*\*KHAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!

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