I agree wholeheartedly.
This, I think, was also the logic behind casting Peter O’Toole as Cervantes/Don Quixote in Man of la Mancha. especially when Richard Kiley was still available. Not to mention the non-singing Sophia Loren when Joan Diener was around.
Peter O’Toole as Henry II - I thought he was amazing both times! He was also great in My Favorite Year: “I’m not an actor, I’m a movie star!!”
On the sucky side - the kid on Two and a Half Men - he can’t act and his character is obnoxious, and not in a good way. Not that the show is all that great anyway, but man, did he stink it up.
Kevin Costner as Robin Hood - even without the awful accent, he was not convincing.
Shelley Long in just about anything. She was tolerable in Cheers, but I never saw her do anything else that suggested she could act.
Best: Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce in L.A. Confidential. These get bonus points because Crowe and especially Pearce were barely known in the U.S., and so it’s impressive that the filmmakers were able to find the perfect two people for the roles (even if Crowe isn’t the obvious choice for Bud White, based on the book character).
Worst: Anne Hathaway in One Day. Not only is her accent bad, but she’s completely wrong for mousy, intellectual Emma. Carey Mulligan or Rebecca Hall would have been much more suitable.
Kato, of course, is Bruce Lee.
Some actors are perfectly cast in part because of a physical quirk. Think Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister. His stature is only part of it, of course - he can act, and virtually inhabits the role.
The poster boy for this has to be Ron Perlman, whose odd face made him perfect for his parts as Hellboy, Vincent from the TV series Beauty and the Beast, and the monk Salvatore in The Name of the Rose. Again, he’s a helluvan actor, as proven by the many parts he’s done that didn’t require particular works (not to mention his voice work).
By comparison Rondo Hatton was not, I think, an actor of significant ability. He was a victim of acromegaly, who turned his misfortune to his advantage by appearing in a number of films as a particularly striking “heavy”. You could argue that he was perfectly cast, but I think it’s a different order from Dinklage and Perlman.
For me, it’s her prominent ears, which the short haircut she wears in Storybrooke does nothing to conceal.
As far as great casting: Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man. A genius in his field, with serious substance abuse problems? Perfect.
Here you go, the best and worst casting of all time.
A long time ago, when Robert Altman’s Nashville first opened, my local paper’s two critics were split – one thought it was the best thing ever, the other despised it. So the editor ran their reviews side-by-side.
Of the cast, one mentioned “Henry Gibson, stunningly cast against type. . .”
While the other said “Henry Gibson, woefully miscast. . .”
Andre The Giant as Fezzik, say.
Best casting: Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe in the Sharpe series.
You’ve probably stopped watching, but they’ve turned Ecklie into a likable hero since they introduced his daughter with the china-doll face.
The best casting choices are the ones that turned second-banana sidekicks into character icons.
Art Carney as Ed Norton
Bob Denver as Maynard G. Krebs
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin
Diana Rigg as Mrs. Peel
I’m going back a long way, but just to make the point that these characters live on when nobody expected them to do anything but support the hero with a few lines.
I can’t imagine ANYONE else playing Bret Maverick or Jim Rockford except James Garner.
You know what’s not surprising? Someone cast DeForest Kelley as a country doctor.
Look at the guy’s pre-Trek credits on IMDB: he played a doctor on BONANZA, a doctor on THE ADVENTURES OF JIM BOWIE, a doctor on THE LONE RANGER, a doctor on LAREDO, a doctor on – you know what? I could keep doing this for quite a while. (“But wait,” you say; “I still showed initiative casting him as a sci-fi doctor.” No, you didn’t; he’d already repeatedly played a doctor on SCIENCE FICTION THEATRE; it’s what the guy was born to do.)
Well, it needs to be said. . .
Everyone in Firefly. Everyone. Great casting. Of course, Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin seemed to have the best lines, but yeah, everyone.
While I agree with you, I’ve always considered Maverick and Rockford as somewhat similar characters, basically James Garner playing himself more or less.
People say this all the time, but whatever character Heath Ledger was playing was not the Joker. Jack Nicholson was and still is the best.
I’m not actually sure anything is out of character for the Joker.
Simon Jones as Arthur Dent. Peter Jones as the guide. David Dixon as Ford Prefect. the whole HHG was right on.
the TV cast worked well because they were mostly the radio cast and both had to know the part but also could be the character with voice alone.
Heath Ledger took a character that was incredibly difficult to lift wholly from it’s source material and still fit in the real world, and made it work. Simply brilliant writing, directing and acting.
Jack Nicholson did what he always does: played Jack Nicholson. He was the worst part of the first Burton Batman movie, and deserves mention in this thread as a BAD casting choice. Too old, too. . .JACK.
Edward James Olmos and Michael Hogan in the Battlestar Galactica reboot.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the X-Men movies was a great choice. The guy just looks like him, and that hair would have looked silly on anyone else except him.
However, from the same movie, I think Halle Berry was Storm was terrible. Sure, she didn’t do much, but to me, she’s too dainty looking to play Storm, who grew up on another continent and an orphan at one time. Berry looks like she just stepped out of the pages of a fashion magazine. Also in the same movie, Anna Paquin as Rogue was kind of miscast. She redeemed herself a little in X-Men 2, but I didn’t like how much younger they made her in X-Men 1 and turned part of it into her growing up story. Rogue should have been older and played by someone with a pronounced southern accent
