Darren Macgavin was every bit Karl Kolchack but only because of his acting style. Another talented actor would have done a good portrayal using a different attack.
Now to diverge a bit, what can you say about first/prior choices of talent and the one who finally landed the role?
Case 1: Dirty Harry. Originally desinged for John Wayne. The duke turned it down (the violence lacked creativity and romance.) It was next offered to Frank Sinatra who had to decline because of an injured hand (from punching paparazzi?) The roles were also offered to Robert Mitchum and Burt Lancaster.
Case 2: The Riddler. Envisioned for actors Tom Hanks, Dan Akroyd and Robin Williams. (Williams would have made a creepy Riddler.)
Say what you like about The Flintstones live-action movie, John Goodman was perfectly cast as Fred.
Josh Brolin was believable as a younger Kay in Men In Black III. He captured Tommy Lee Jones’ deadpan style perfectly and had the same chemistry with Will Smith that Jones had. Although I couldn’t buy him as 29 years old (Brolin was actually about 44 when it was filmed).
Connie Britton played the wife of the football coach (Billy Bob Thornton) in the movie Friday Night Lights. There really wasn’t any chemistry. When casting the TV show, they got Britton to come back, and cast her husband with Kyle Chandler, a soap opera actor. Their chemistry was amazing and they became the heart of the show for five seasons.
Chandler went on to star in two Academy Award Best Picture nominees last year, including the winner. (Argo and Zero Dark Thirty.)
Soap actor>Friday Night Lights>Movie Star. Pretty good progression.
Connie Britton has done pretty well for herself, too, as has Taylor Kitsch (Tim Riggins). Great casting on that show.
The casting was up and down for me in The Stand. Trashy was awesome, I thought Flagg was off, but the absolute best casting in the whole King 'verse to me is M-O-O-N, and that’s how you spell Tom Cullen.
Now I need to go back and watch Little Buddha, because when it first came out I remember being knocked out by Keanu Reeves as Siddartha. I hope I feel the same on a re-watch.
Completely agree that Molly Ringwald WAS NOT FRAN in The Stand.
One of the single best additions to an already established cast is Mayim Bialik as Amy Farrah Fowler. I agree Jim Parsons is perfectly cast… but for my money, Bialik trumps him.
I think calling Kyle Chandler a soap opera actor is a stretch. According to IMDb, he appeared on two episodes of One Life to Live (thirteen years apart, so the second one was probably a clip of the earlier role, not him reprising the part), and by the time Friday Night Lights started, he’d already had a couple successful drama series under his belt (Early Edition and Homefront), a role in Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong, and an Emmy nomination for Grey’s Anatomy.
TV actor to roles in two Best Picture nominees is certainly impressive. But it’s not like he went right from the set of One Life to Live to Friday Night Lights.
Soap opera actor? Where did you get that? Imdb shows 2 episodes of One Life to Live. Not unusual for a young actor. Before Friday Night Lights he had starred in two of his own prime time TV shows, Homefront and Inside Edition.
Tricia Helfer as cylon Model 6 in the Battlestar Galactica reboot. Perfect mix of the sensual, the ruthless, the intellectual… and Edward Olmos and Michael Hogan, also in BSG. They worked so well together - as if made for each other.
Love some of the replies thus far. One thing I’ve noticed is many folks go with the casting of a character they have known for literature or perhaps the comic book genre. I don’t know why, but I rarely get caught up in the casting of an actor from a written work I’ve already read through. Not sure why, as I always get a mental picture of the person I’m reading about.
The only person from the top of my head that I can think of that I hated in a movie after reading the book was Trevor Howard as Ashley Wilkes in Gone With The Wind. I hated the choice, and he almost single-handedly ruins the movie for me.
I stopped watching when Grissom’s character left the show, so you called that. I can’t imagine liking Ecklie, so I’m kind of glad I haven’t seen the softer, more like able Ecklie.
I came in to mention this one, since I hadn’t seen it posted yet, but I was happy to see someone snagging it. It is almost a cliche to mention this one, because it is so widely regarded as the absolute worst casting and acting performance, but you just can’t ignore it!
Agree completely with QT. He basically ruins every scene he is in, and he’s a terrible actor. He’s also extremely ugly, which doesn’t help. But, his acting skills are so bad they are distracting. I wish his ego would take a break. His movies are always enjoyable and he doesn’t need a speaking cameo role to make his mark. JMHO.
Agree with this also. Timothy Olyphant always seems to play a strange, rather thin, and standing strangely erect guy who likes to stare through the other actors. He did the same thing in the fourth Die Hard movie as he did in Deadwood. Very odd, and he’s too skinny and pretty to be a believable badass.
Ed Furlong is miscast in everything. He’s a freaky looking guy, with no coordination. Something is off with him, because he gives me the jeebies in everything I’ve seen him in. Maybe he’s too effeminate or something, but he runs very oddly, (check him out in American History X), and he’s not believable in other roles (he played opposite Willem Defoe in a Prison movie that I can’t recall. Also a bad John Connor, and e also played a psychopathic reality TV star that was also a bad choice.
Another Worst Actor is Nick Cage. He plays the exact same role, with the exact same facial expressions in everything he does. The fact that he has an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas is criminal. If he would only open up his eyes the whole way, maybe we’d have something!
I have mentioned her before on these boards, but Lindsay Crouse is the absolute worst actress I’ve ever seen have a prolonged career in Hollywood. If you want to get a glimpse of what I’m talking about, watch House Of Games, an otherwise enjoyable thriller about the dark world of con men. She plays a 2x4 with a butch haircut.
I’ll add one TV show for general props. I can’t think of a TV show with more memorable bit characters than Seinfeld.
People like Newman, J. Peterman, George’s parents, tha Mandelbaums, Puddy, etc, etc, all fit their parts to perfection. The single casting error of the show (IMO) is Elaine. Julie Louis-Dreyfus was not and is still not funny, and her facial movement habits and other oddities I picked up over watching her forever on reruns have made me hate her. If anyone is interested, I could outline the, for you, but I warn you. I told my wife the things she does that drive me nuts, and now my wife can’t watch Seinfeld reruns.