Merle was second choice to play Judith Traherne after Greta Garbo, when David O Selznick and MGM owned the rights to the material. Merle declined because of a contract dispute.
Actor who got the part: Bette Davis
The exotic star was originally in line to play the sheltered heiress who falls in love with a monk who is hiding his past. Producer David O. Selznick paid off Oberon.
Actor who got the part: Marlene Dietrich
Turned down the great and poignant role of the aging, vain beauty "Fanny Skeffington," for which she was first choice.
Actor who got the part: Bette Davis
Originally intended as a project for Merle (with a trained dancer taking her place when required).
Actor who got the part: Moira Shearer
O'Brien was offered the role of Alice in this movie, when it was to be part animation and part live actiton, but her mother did not think Walt Disney offered enough money so she did not make the movie.
Actor who got the part: Kathryn Beaumont
O'Donnell was going to reprise his role as Robin, prior to the film's cancellation.
Chris O'Donnell was considered for the role of J.
Actor who got the part: Will Smith
Chris O'Donnell was cast as Barbra Streisand's son, but Streisand replaced him with her own son, Jason Gould.
Actor who got the part: Jason Gould
Considered for the lead role of Jack Dawson.
Actor who got the part: Leonardo DiCaprio
Damien O'Donnell was asked to direct Billy Elliot but after reading the script declined.
Actor who got the part: Stephen Daldry
Anjelica Huston wanted Rosie O'Donnell to play the title part. After O'Donnell turned it down, Huston decided to play the part.
Actor who got the part: Anjelica Huston
Several sources claimed that Rosie O'Donnell might play Mrs. Weasley. One report said that O'Donnell offered to play the role for free, but the producers turned her down because they wanted an all British cast.
She turned down the role that went to Kathy Najimy because she did not want to be associated with a character who would harm children.
Actor who got the part: Kathy Najimy
According to her autobiography, O'Hara was cast as Eliza Birdwell, but happened to mention it to John Ford and he called William Wyler and had her removed from the cast as he hated her so much.
Actor who got the part: Dorothy McGuire
Originally set to play "Anna Leonowens."
Actor who got the part: Deborah Kerr
The fiery star says she approached Disney years before the famous Julie Andrews-Dick Van Dyke movie about a film version in which she would have played the stern nanny.
Actor who got the part: Julie Andrews
Maureen O'Hara was director John Ford's choice for the role of Eloise Y. Kelly. MGM instead cast Ava Gardner.
Actor who got the part: Ava Gardner
In her autobigraphy, 'Tis Herself, Miss O'Hara claims that she was the first choice to provide the singing voice of Audrey Hepburn's Eliza Doolittle. Veteren voice double Marni Nixon eventually did Audrey's singing in the film.
Actor who got the part: Marni Nixon
Due to be filmed in Hawaii in 1951, a dispute over script rights led the backers of this independent production to withdraw their financial support.
In her autobiography, she writes that she was the first choice to play the second "Mrs. de Winter."
Actor who got the part: Joan Fontaine
Early in the project, Gary Oldman was consdiered to play the lead role.
Actor who got the part: Liam Neeson
Gary Oldman was considered for the role of Kazinski in Jarhead.
Actor who got the part: Chris Cooper
Gary Oldman was considered to play the part of the prison warden.
Actor who got the part: James Cromwell
In 2001, Gary Oldman was reportedly set to play a murderous kidnapper in a film called Macabre, but the film was never made.
Actor who got the part: Never Made
Gary Oldman was considered to play Morpheus, according to an interview with Matrix composer Don Davis.
Actor who got the part: Laurence Fishburne
Gary Oldman reportedly was offered the part of General Grievous but being a member of the screen actors guild, he could not accept it. This claim has been disputed - see wikipedia for Episode III.
Actor who got the part: Matthew Wood
Gary Oldman was considered for the role of Deacon.
Actor who got the part: Dennis Hopper
According to Variety, Gary Oldman was considered to play rhe role of Melvin Belli.
Actor who got the part: Brian Cox
Olin was considered for the role of Carl Bruner but committment to his TV show "Thirty Something" prevented him from accepting the part.
Actor who got the part: Tony Goldwyn
Olin was turned down for the role of Catwoman.
Actor who got the part: Michelle Pfeiffer
Lena Olin was turned down for the role of Maria.
Actor who got the part: Melanie Griffith
The Swedish actress is among the beauties considered to play the haunted heroine.
Actor who got the part: Nastassja Kinski
Originally considered for the Wicked Witch, but lost out to Gale Sondergaard and eventually Margaret Hamilton.
Actor who got the part: Margaret Hamilton
For one of his greatest masterworks, maestro Federico Fellinni seriously considered Olivier for the role of the film director suffering a creative crisis.
Actor who got the part: Marcello Mastroianni
Olivier was offered the cameo role of Phineas Fogg's valet at the beginning of the film, but declined the invitation.
Actor who got the part: John Gielgud
Offered the role of the powerful, elderly, ailing billionaire "Benjamin Rand" but turned it down because he objected to the sexual content.
Actor who got the part: Melvyn Douglas
Laurence Olivier declined a British movie offer in 1948 to play the title role. It was made in America 2 years later.
Actor who got the part: Jose Ferrer
The role of the great, troubled and insecure stage actor "Anthony John" in this George Cukor-director character study was written for Olivier who was unavailable when the film finally went into production.
Actor who got the part: Ronald Colman
Considered by the filmmakers to play "The Captain".
Actor who got the part: Cyril Cusack
Producer David O. Selznick considered him for the role of the renegade monk.
Actor who got the part: Charles Boyer
Considered for the role of Vito Corleone.
Actor who got the part: Marlon Brando
Warner Bros. rejected director Alfred Hitchcock's idea of Olivier to play a Catholic priest who hears the confession of a murderer.
Actor who got the part: Montgomery Clift
Originally cast as the defendant judge "Dr. Ernst Janning" in the shattering Stanley Kramer-directed drama about the court trial of Nazi war crimes.
Actor who got the part: Burt Lancaster
Singing movie star said that Olivier was among MGM's top choices to star in the movie version of Cole Porter's hit musical.
Actor who got the part: Howard Keel
Over the many years it took to launch a movie version, Olivier was one of the actors considered for the role of complex, heroic T. E. Lawrence.
Actor who got the part: Peter O'Toole
Was wanted for the leading role by maestro Luchino Visconti but the producers insisted on a big box-office name.
Actor who got the part: Burt Lancaster
Laurence Olivier refused the role of Humbert Humbert.
Actor who got the part: James Mason
Olivier was going to direct and play the title role in a film of one of his greatest stage roles, but the project fell through after the death of the project's financier Michael Todd.
Executives at Columbia Studios wanted Olivier to play Sir Thomas More, but director Fred Zinnemann was adamant that Paul Scofield recreate his stage performance in the film.
Actor who got the part: Paul Scofield
Laurence Olivier was considered for the role of the phony preacher which eventually went to Robert Mitchum.
Actor who got the part: Robert Mitchum
Director Alfred Hitchcock hoped to sign Olivier to the play the role of a London lawyer who disgraces himself by falling in love with his beautiful, murderous client.
Actor who got the part: Gregory Peck
Star Bette Davis wanted Olivier to play Lord Essex, insisting that Errol Flynn could not read blank verse well.
Actor who got the part: Errol Flynn
Garbo had requested that Laurence Olivier play opposite her, as Antonio, but he was replaced when it was realised in rehearsals that they had no chemistry.
Actor who got the part: John Gilbert
Olivier wanted to perform opposite his wife Vivien Leigh in the movie, but MGM head Louis B. Mayer insisted that an MGM contract player play the role.
Actor who got the part: Robert Taylor
Edward James Olmos turned down a role according to imdb.
Edward James Olmos turned down a chance to reprise the role of Castillo.
Actor who got the part: Barry Shabaka Henley
Edward James Olmos turned down a role in Scarface.
Edward James Olmos was considered to play Klingon Commander Kruge.
Actor who got the part: Christopher Lloyd
Edward James Olmos was considered for the role of Lieutenant Traxler.
Actor who got the part: Paul Winfield
The Oscar nominated actress was considered for the role of Delilah.
Actor who got the part: Hedy Lamarr
Director John Huston's choice for the leading role of a sexually tormented Army major.
Actor who got the part: Marlon Brando
O'Neal auditioned for the lead but was reportedly turned down because his skin was too light.
Actor who got the part: Richard Roundtree
Ryan O'Neal was pursued to play opposite Diana Ross in THE BODYGUARD, but the project stalled and O'Neal went to work on THE DRIVER and THE MAIN EVENT.
Actor who got the part: Kevin Costner
According to Faye's autobiography, Ryan was initially signed for the lead role.
Actor who got the part: Jon Voight
Ryan O'Neal was considered for the role of Michael Corleone.
Producers offered Sly $150,000 to let Ryan O'Neal play Rocky but he refused (Sly wrote the movie).
Actor who got the part: Sylvester Stallone
Barbra Streisand wanted Ryan O'Neal, but the studio didn't want another Streisand-O'Neal pairing after the movie What's Up Doc.
Actor who got the part: Robert Redford
Ed O'Neill, as well as many others who are famous for playing TV Dads, was consdiered for the role of Mr. Teevee.
Actor who got the part: Adam Godley
O'Neill was originally cast in "Flight of the Intruder," but his character was recast and his scene was reshot because test audiences would laugh at the sight of "Al Bundy."
O'Neill filmed a number of scenes as the young preacher opposite Daniel Day Lewis. Director Paul Thomas Anderson re-shot the scenes with a new actor.
Actor who got the part: Paul Dano
Jerry filmed scenes as the father of Suzanne Vale, but they were cut.
Actor who got the part: Part Cut
Osbourne left the project after having originally been cast as Anabel's musically-oriented best friend.
Actor who got the part: Christina Vidal
The green fairy was originally going to be a "long-haired muscle-man" played by Ozzy Osbourne. The character was changed, but Ozzy reportedly still recorded the fairy's scream as it turns evil.
Was considered to play the lead role (when Steven Speilberg was considered to direct) but was turned down as JK Rowling wanted a british actor to play the role. At the end neither he or Steven Speilberg got a part in the movie.
Actor who got the part: Daniel Radcliffe
Four of the Osmond Brothers auditioned to be a Von Trapp kid: Alan Osmond, Jay Osmond, Merrill Osmond and Wayne Osmond.
Osmond reportedly auditioned to sing Go the Distance, but the song went to Michael Bolton.
Actor who got the part: Michael Bolton
Four of the Osmond Brothers auditioned to be a Von Trapp kid: Alan Osmond, Jay Osmond, Merrill Osmond and Wayne Osmond.
Marie Osmond was one of the many names in the mix to play Sandy in the film adaption of GREASE. Olivia Newton-John won the coveted role.
Actor who got the part: Olivia Newton-John
Four of the Osmond Brothers auditioned to be a Von Trapp kid: Alan Osmond, Jay Osmond, Merrill Osmond and Wayne Osmond.
Four of the Osmond Brothers auditioned to be a Von Trapp kid: Alan Osmond, Jay Osmond, Merrill Osmond and Wayne Osmond.
Hitchcock's producer Herbert Coleman, not interested in Janet Leigh for the role of "Marion Crane," preferred the beautiful O'Sullivan.
Actor who got the part: Janet Leigh
Was considered for the role of the Baron.
Actor who got the part: John Neville
Turned down the role of "Jake" because he thought the script by Lillian Hellman from a play by Horton Foote was "ghastly."
Actor who got the part: James Fox
High on the list of candidates to play Marc Antony.
Actor who got the part: Richard Burton
O'Toole's multi-year contract with producer Sam Spiegel forced him to turn down the lead role in David Lean's epic based on the novel by Boris Pasternack.
Actor who got the part: Omar Sharif
Among the stars considered for the leading male role in Francois Truffaut's movie version of Ray Bradbury's great novel.
Actor who got the part: Oskar Werner
Considered to replace close friend Sir Richard Harris as Professor Albus Dumbledore but politely refused.
Actor who got the part: Michael Gambon
O'Toole was the studio's first choice to play Henry VIII.
Actor who got the part: Robert Shaw
The leading role in the great sci-fi film was intended for O'Toole.
Actor who got the part: David Bowie
John Huston's "pet" adventure project nearly got off the ground with O'Toole, but it was not to be.
Actor who got the part: Michael Caine
Alfred Hitchcock considered the handsome young star for the romantic leading male role in his psychological thriller-love story. The director generally preferred leading men with dark hair to contrast with his famous elegant blondes.
Actor who got the part: Sean Connery
O'Toole was reportedly offered the role of Rasputin.
Actor who got the part: Tom Baker
Director Billy Wilder had O'Toole in mind to play Holmes, but decided instead to cast a lesser-known, less costly actor.
Actor who got the part: Robert Stephens
O'Toole was considered for a role.
Miranda was set to play the role of Lotte, but lost out when Cameron Diaz expressed interest.
Actor who got the part: Cameron Diaz
Clive Owen was seriously considered for the role of James Bond.
Actor who got the part: Daniel Craig
Owen was reportedly considered for the role of James Braddock.
Actor who got the part: Russell Crowe
Frank Oz was attached to direct the film at one time.
Actor who got the part: Tim Burton
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