Perfectly Cast

[JonnyQuest037]

Here's my list of perfectly cast people:

-Errol Flynn as Robin Hood. He has the looks, the personality and the general flair that Robin Hood is upposed to have. I can't believe it was initially supposed to be James Cagney in the part.

-Christopher Reeve as Superman. Again, the physical incarnation of the character. He had the genius idea to underplay the superhero part. His Clark Kent was tons of fun and different enough from Superman that you could believe the disguise could work.

-Lynda Carter as Wonder Woman. She looked like an Amazon princess and played the part with a wonderful conviction. Too bad she never got to play the part in a good, high-budget movie.

-Sean Connery as James Bond. 40 years later, and actors are STILL trying to live up to what Connery did in this part. I could also make a good case for Daniel Craig as Bond.

-Basil Rathbone and Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. Both wonderful for different reasons.

-Kevin Conroy as Batman. PERFECT, and the voice I now hear when I think of Batman.

-Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones.

-Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly.

-Bruce Lee as Kato. He's the main reason the character is remembered today.

-Adam West & Burt Ward were perfectly cast as a humorous Batman & Robin for the 60s show.

-Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. Handsome, looks good with facial hair, and a history of substance abuse.

-Edward Norton as Bruce Banner. The right look, convincing as a scientist, and skinny enough that he can believably bullied. VERY sorry he's not going to be playing the part any more.

-Jackie Earl Haley as Rorschach.

-Alfred Molina as Doctor Octopus. A near-perfect physical match, and a great actor besides.

-J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson. Terrific in the part. I just wish they gave him more to do.

-Gary Oldman as James Gordon. He looked EXACTLY like the David Mazzuchelli version of the character. A great example of casting against type that really worked.

-Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy. It was like he was channelling the original actor.

-Gary Cole as Mike Brady. Ditto.

Some folks who JUST MISS, IMO:

-Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man. A pitch-perfect PP, but he missed Spidey's trademark wisecracking humor.

-Patrick Stewart as Prof. Xavier. A great match physically and played the part beautifully, but Prof. X isn't British.

-Christian Bale as Batman. A great Bruce Wayne, but his Batman voice sounds like Cookie Monster.

 

[Reverend]

Personally I wouldn't count any purely cinematic characters like Neo and the like as it's often the case that when a big star gets attached in a lead role, said role get rewritten to otherwise adjusted to suit the actor, not the other way around.

When it comes to print-to-screen characters, I thought Alec Newman was fantastic in Children of Dune. But oddly enough not so much as young Paul in the first one or for that matter Muad'Dib, but as the Preacher near the end. He was pitch perfect to how I'd pictured the character.

I'd also add (to my total shock) the entire cast of Watchmen. Not a bum note in the bunch, but between them, Jackie Earl Haley, Billy Crudup and Jeffrey Dean Morgan stole the show.

Ron Perlman and Doug Jones simply are Hellboy and Abe and that's all there is to it. Jones has even admitted to being a real fish mutant in human make-up and I'm not even a bit surprised.

In terms of voice work, Hamill and Conroy obviously jump to mind as examples of perfect casting, but I'd hasten to add Michael Ansara as Victor Fries. With only a mere handful of appearances he totally defined that character.

-Gary Oldman as James Gordon. He looked EXACTLY like the David Mazzuchelli version of the character. A great example of casting against type that really worked.

Not that I disagree with any of that, but I think it's only fair to point out that Oldman is a chameleon actor. Seriously, have you ever seen him in a role where he didn't seem perfectly cast?

 

[Anwar]

I always felt Timothy Dalton was closer to the book version of Bond than most others, until Daniel Craig.

 

[Silvercrest]

Some actors were meant to play a certain character. I can think of a few examples of cases where a certain actor is the only obvious choice for a character.

Aragorn - Viggo Mortensen - sixteenth Chieftain of the Dúnedain, twenty-sixth King of Arnor, thirty-fifth King of Gondor and the first High King of the Reunited Kingdom, Heir of Isildur, Heir to the Throne of Gondor, the Dunadan, Longshanks, Strider, Wingfoot, Elessar Telcontar, Envinyatar, Estel, Thorongil

okay enough with the names and titles

You forgot "the Elfstone".

Elessar means "elfstone," so technically he didn't.

I know, but Telcontar and Strider also mean the same thing and they're both listed. I'm just being complete.

I thought about suggesting "Ranger of the North" as well, but it pales in comparison to all that.

Completely agreed about Viggo Mortensen, though. He was fantastic as Aragorn. Though I am kinda interested to see how Daniel Day-Lewis would have handled the character.

Speaking of perfectly-cast actors in LOTR...Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf.

Agreed to both. I bet Day-Lewis would have done fine too, and I don't know who would have been better. I wasn't too sure about Mortensen when I first heard about him. The only thing I'd seen him in was "A Perfect Murder", and I wasn't impressed.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

Sweet Jeebus! I can't believe I'm on a Star Trek board, in a thread about actors born to play their roles, and nobody's hit the go-to...

Leonard Nimoy as Spock!

Jim Carrey, The Truman Show

A lot of "cool' people seem to really dislike Jim Carrey, but I'm a big fan myself, and I agree with you. That role reminds me very much of Will Ferrells' role in Stranger than Fiction. He really showed that he could do a lot more than just be "wacky".

This thread reminded me of a line from Carrey's early stand-up routine: "Y'know, E.T. was perfect for that role! I wonder why he never did anything after that?"

 

[Captaindemotion]

I always felt Timothy Dalton was closer to the book version of Bond than most others, until Daniel Craig.

I think that's probably true - Dalton arguably looks closer to how Bond is described, though I prefer Craig's performance.

As regards Connery, my recollection is that Ian Fleming once said that Connery wasn't exactly how he'd pictured 007 (in fact, he was against his casting) but after seering Connery, he reckoned that if he was writing the books all over again, he'd make him more like the mighty Scot.

BTW, I don't want to disss anyone but it should be obvious that this thread is about actors fitting the bill for a pre-existing character - Viggo/ Aragorn being the original example. Sure, Leonard Nimoy is a brilliant Spock, Harrison Ford a great Indiana Jones etc, but they're also the first incarnations of those characters - they helped create them. If Spock was played by Martin Landau or Indy by Tom Sellock, we'd all be citing them as perfect casting too - because that's who we'd be used to and because the characters would have been altered to fit the actors.

That's different from instances where an actor takes on a role already described or pictured in a book or comic, already in the reader's head and doesn't disappoint the reader when he sees them onscreen.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

I always thought James Bond, both the name and the number, were titles given to a very special secret agent, but ages changes (albiet, rarely).

I think Martin Landau was brilliant as Bela Lagosi in Ed Wood.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I always thought James Bond, both the name and the number, were titles given to a very special secret agent, but ages changes (albiet, rarely).

I've heard that argument before, mostly from the director of Die Another Day. But, to be honest, it doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever.

We know that it's the same character, simply played by different actors....
1.) In On Her Majesty's Secret Serivce, George Lazenby has a scene in which he fondly remembers the events of Connery's movies, even having souvenirs from those movies in his desk.
2.) In For Your Eyes Only, Roger Moore is shown visiting the grave of Bond's wife, who of course married Bond when he was played by George Lazenby.
3.) In License to Kill, Felix Leiter refers to Bond's marriage from On Her Majesty's Secret Service, even though the character is now played by Timothy Dalton.

It seems rather odd that four different people who just happen to share the "title" of James Bond 007 would all have the exact same life experiences.

 

[Chris_Johnston]

Martin Landau would not have been able to pull off Spock.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

-Gary Oldman as James Gordon. He looked EXACTLY like the David Mazzuchelli version of the character. A great example of casting against type that really worked.

Not that I disagree with any of that, but I think it's only fair to point out that Oldman is a chameleon actor. Seriously, have you ever seen him in a role where he didn't seem perfectly cast?

I didn't think much of Oldman as Dracula, but I thought he was a PERFECT Lee Harvey Oswald in JFK.

As regards Connery, my recollection is that Ian Fleming once said that Connery wasn't exactly how he'd pictured 007 (in fact, he was against his casting) but after seering Connery, he reckoned that if he was writing the books all over again, he'd make him more like the mighty Scot.

This is true, and that's why Fleming stated that Bond's father was Scottish in his novel You Only Live Twice. Fleming also gave Ursulla Andress a shout-out in One Her Majesty's Secret Service, the first Bond book he wrote after Dr. No was filmed.

I just remembered another book to film translation where the author liked the casting -- Erle Stanley Gardner had casting approval on the Perry Mason TV series, and supposedly rejected every actor he saw until Raymond Burr auditioned for the part.

 

[Skywalker]

As regards Connery, my recollection is that Ian Fleming once said that Connery wasn't exactly how he'd pictured 007 (in fact, he was against his casting) but after seering Connery, he reckoned that if he was writing the books all over again, he'd make him more like the mighty Scot.

That reminds me of what Bernard Cornwell did with his character, Richard Sharpe, after the TV movies starring Sean Bean were made. Sharpe was originally just an orphan from the streets of London, but Cornwell was so impressed with Bean that he went back and retconned Sharpe's background so that he fled London and spent some of his youth in Yorkshire, where Sean Bean was raised.

Oh, speaking of which...Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe.

 

[Captain Pike]

Simon Jones as Arthur Dent is probably the greatest example of perfect fit casting I can think of. Douglas Adams came up with the character of Arthur after seeing Simon Jones acting in a sketch show - the part was quite literally written for him, and he embodies the character perfectly and effortlessly.

Beyond that, Tom Baker made the perfect Doctor Who, imo, and as someone else pointed out, you can't go far past Leonard Nimoy as Mr Spock.

 

[Captaindemotion]

.That reminds me of what Bernard Cornwell did with his character, Richard Sharpe, after the TV movies starring Sean Bean were made. Sharpe was originally just an orphan from the streets of London, but Cornwell was so impressed with Bean that he went back and retconned Sharpe's background so that he fled London and spent some of his youth in Yorkshire, where Sean Bean was raised.

Oh, speaking of which...Sean Bean as Richard Sharpe.

Again, a sort of accidental casting. Paul McGann was originally set to play the part but broke his leg playing football. In stepped Mr Bean and the rest is history.

 

[Servo]

In stepped Mr Bean and the rest is history.

Now that would have been a very different show.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

^It also would have been very different with Paul McGann.

-Christopher Reeve as Superman. Again, the physical incarnation of the character. He had the genius idea to underplay the superhero part. His Clark Kent was tons of fun and different enough from Superman that you could believe the disguise could work.

Agreed. Not only did Reeve make us believe that a man can fly, but more importantly, in such a cynical age, he made us believe that such a good, incorruptible, non-angsty hero could still exist.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. He wasn't perfect but I think he's as close as you can get without cloning Reeve.

I think Martin Landau was brilliant as Bela Lagosi in Ed Wood.

Agreed. "Karloff? Sidekick? Fuck you! Karloff doesn't deserve to smell my shit! That limey cocksucker can rot in hell for all I care! Do you think it takes talent to play Frankenstein? It's all make-up & grunting!"

Jackie Earl Haley as Rorschach in Watchmen. The only thing about that movie that I can call unequivocally PERFECT.

Shelly Duvall as Olive Oyl in Popeye.

Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon in Batman Begins & The Dark Knight.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Even though he's too tall for the part, he perfectly embodies the attitude.

Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy in Star Trek (2009).

Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.

Tom Baker as the Doctor on Doctor Who. Even though there had been three previous Doctors (and Patrick Troughton is probably honestly my favorite), none of the others seemed such a perfect, obvious fit. The rest are all immensely talented actors ably playing the Doctor. Tom Baker IS the Doctor.

And while I know this thread is mostly for actors playing established character, I would like to mention the entire cast of Red Dwarf. It helps that all of the characters are exaggerated versions of the actors anyway. I think the most impressive is Chris Barrie as Rimmer. Can you picture any other actor possibly pulling off that character?

And while Michael J. Fox is receiving lots of love for Marty McFly, I think not nearly enough credit is being given to Christopher Lloyd as "Doc" Emmett L. Brown and Thomas F. Wilson as Biff Tannen/Griff/Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen.

OBVIOUS CASTING THAT WAS IGNORED: Why didn't Jason Statham play the lead in Hitman?

 

[Servo]

^It also would have been very different with Paul McGann.

I'm unsure as to whether you got the joke or not.

Mr. Bean

 

[FPAlpha]

Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock

As younger versions of the famous characters and building on the performance of the original cast they are perfect in that role.

Just watch the scene of that Romulan choking Kirk inside the Romulan ship and Kirk/Pine going "I've got your gun!" and shooting him.
The way Pine spits out these words is pure Kirk/Shatner and i got goosebumps seeing that.

Star Trek wouldn't have been nearly this good without the two of them.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'd also like to give a shout-out to Brandon Routh in Superman Returns. He wasn't perfect but I think he's as close as you can get without cloning Reeve.

Agreed, but unfortunately he didn't have a good script, direction or costume to work with.

Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. Even though he's too tall for the part, he perfectly embodies the attitude.

For me, the fact that he's a not a physical match for the comic character knocks him down to less than perfect. I distinctly remember thinking during my first viewing of X-Men that it was funny that Professor X had a hairier chest than Wolverine did.

Just watch the scene of that Romulan choking Kirk inside the Romulan ship and Kirk/Pine going "I've got your gun!" and shooting him.
The way Pine spits out these words is pure Kirk/Shatner and i got goosebumps seeing that.

For me, it was the munching the apple during the Kobyashi Maru test. Pure Shatner.

 

[Trippy]

Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock

As younger versions of the famous characters and building on the performance of the original cast they are perfect in that role.

Just watch the scene of that Romulan choking Kirk inside the Romulan ship and Kirk/Pine going "I've got your gun!" and shooting him.
The way Pine spits out these words is pure Kirk/Shatner and I got goosebumps seeing that.

Star Trek wouldn't have been nearly this good without the two of them.

This.

Also:

Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in the Star Wars Triology. I couldn't imagine anyone else in those roles.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'll throw in Michael Rossenbaum in "Smallville" as Lex Luthor. I agree completely with Brandon Routh as Clark Kent/Superman. He just wasn't given enough dialogue.