Not to mention Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren in Man of la Mancha. I’ve only recently learned that by the time O’Toole was involved they had decided not to make it a musical (the TV play it was originally based on wasn’t a musical, so it’s not unreasonable), but then they changed their minds.
One definite case of the role being written for the actor is the case of Horace Rumpole (“of the Bailey”). John Mortimer probably didn’t have anyone in particular in mind when he originally created the character, but Leo McKern played him so well and so long that Mortimer eventually wrote the teleplays (and stories) with McKern in mind. As far as I know, he’s the only one to ever portray the character on TV. He’s also read the stories for three different audiobook companies. Nevertheless, I’ve heard two audiobooks read by other actors – one a fairly anonymous voice actor whose name I can’t recall, the other by frequent movie actor Michael Hordern*. They were both quite good, but I couldn’t imagine either of them as Horace Rumpole.
*Hordern has been in so many roles that I’ll guarantee you’ve seen or heard him, but he has no “signature” role I know of. If it helps, he was Senex (the father) in the movie version of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. He was also the narrator of Barry Lyndon.
Only Bill Cosby himself, could’ve played the part in ‘Bill Cosby: Himself’. Funnily the character I see on IMDb who’s been played by the most actors is ‘Himself’.
Seriously, though, did any other actor have more box office draw, panache and physique to play Ali, than Will Smith, in 2001?
Denzel is 14 years older, I think Jamie Foxx could’ve been in the running but he played Will’s cornerman, Eddie Murphy, Cuba Gooding Jnr and Lawrence Fishburne are all just ‘No, not this film’, Wesley Snipes perhaps?
It’s worth mentioning that for the first straight-to-video sequel (the Return of Jafar) and for the Saturday morning series, Dan Castellenata (Homer Simpson!) performed the part of Genie. He sounded remarkably like Williams. But, of course, he didn’t perform the same manic, freee-wheelin’ way. This is more obvious if you lok mat the second direct-to-video sequel, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, where the coaxed Williams back to the role, and his playing of the Genie is the only thing that makes it worth watching.
Perhaps, as far as the *role *of Patton in the movie is concerned. On the other hand, if you are looking at a performance which is actually bears a resemblance to the actual General Patton, check out Darrin McGavin in the TV miniseries Ike.
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Originally Posted by stillownedbysetters
I have to add Jack Nicholsen in The Shining. He was perfection first as the jumpy on-the-wagon alcoholic, then sinking into a terrifying madness. I just can’t imagine anyone else doing the role as well.
Actually, Stephen King didn’t like him in the role. He wanted someone who wouldn’t telegraph the fact that the character had the potential for going crazy. He wanted someone who looked like he was so steady, he’d never go nuts. King’s choice for the role was Michael Moriarty.
You are 100% correct on this. And ordinarily I like it when the author has input on casting (maybe not the final call in all cases, but at least significant input), but this was an inspired bit of casting. The slow development of ‘crazy’ worked well in the book, but in the movie where things had to move along more quickly, you had to see the potential madness in the character early on, and Jack delivered.
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Yeah and I have to say I don’t quite understand why Peter Dinklage is so highly revered now. I think it must be because he plays a cool character and furthermore it’s unusual to have a cool, dwarf character.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, he’s a great actor, but he doesn’t stand out for me amongst the stellar cast. And occasionally he hams up the accent.
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Ooh, that reminds me: Maybe Eddie Murphy in The Golden Child
Originally the movie was going to be played much more straight, and Eddie added a lot of the jokes, and improvised a lot.
I can’t think of another comedy actor at the time that could have moulded the film in that way, or would have been allowed to.
At the risk of being lumped with the people who didn’t understand the OP, Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood (at least in these times where Bela is dead).
Yes, someone else could *literally *have played Bela Lugosi, but they wouldn’t have been Bela the way Landau was.
Is this actually true? I read the same thing in IIRC the anniversary edition of the novel The Princess Bride, but I took it to be part of the fictional metastory.
He would have been too young for the 1992 film, but Nigel Thatch played Malcolm X in Selma. He only has one scene so I couldn’t judge whether he could have carried a whole movie, but I thought he looked a lot more like the real Malcolm X than did Denzel Washington.