Hello everyone. It’s Friday. That means it’s time for something fun.
So, I’ve prepared a quiz for you… but don’t worry. This is not a quiz that will tax your brain. It is, I hope, a quiz that will send you in fits of laughter off to the rest of your weekend.
The subject matter concerns everyone’s favorite topic: actors who almost played famous parts in movies. It’s fun, and sometimes hilarious, to imagine how different some classics films would have been with someone else (let alone someone entirely different) in roles so closely associated with one performer. For example, my partner and I had a lot of fun discussing what #3 on this list would have been like.
As usual, I’ve kept the movies on this “crimey” side, because, you know, this is a crime website.
Okay, happy guessing!
1. Raymond Chandler wanted this actor to play Philip Marlowe.
2. Meredith Wilson, the writer of the book, lyrics, and music to The Music Man, leveraged everything he had to get Robert Preston cast as Harold Hill in the movie adaptation of the Broadway musical; the studios were hell-bent on this other actor.
3. Who was the first choice to play Han Solo in Star Wars?
4. This actor was the first choice to play Dom Toretto, the role made famous by Vin Deisel, in The Fast and the Furious films.
5. This singer-actress turned down the part of Catwoman in Batman Returns.
6. This actor turned down the part of Michael Corleone in The Godfather because he didn’t feel he was the right fit.
7. This actor had to decide between two films: a gritty crime flick or Forrest Gump. I can’t tell you what the other film is or it’ll give away who the actor is.
8. This actor would have been a very different Indiana Jones than Harrison Ford.
9. Keanu Reeves became Neo in The Matrix after this actor turned down the part.
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1. Cary Grant
2. Frank Sinatra
3. Al Pacino
4. Timothy Olyphant
5. Madonna
6. Jack Nicholson
7. John Travolta (Pulp Fiction)
8. Tom Selleck
9. Will Smith
