Cast the Gold and Silver Age of Comics

[Praetor]

Great suggestions!

Great topic for a thread and some great suggestions.

For Green Arrrow, I'd certainly second Errol Flynn, who was, after all, the definitive Robin Hood, GA's obvious inspiration. Flynn would also have made a good Batman. I've long thought that he was the ideal Tony Stark, but going with the rules of the thread, he doesn't work - Flynn died in 1959, 4 years before IM made his debut.

Burt Lancaster had the looks, the body, the athleticism and the charisma to play many a superhero but I think of all of them, he might have been best fitted for Batman. Other actors who might have made interesting Batman would be Tyrone Power, Cary Grant or the young Sean Connery.

Cary Grant, in my mind has always been the Golden Age Batman, too. Burt Lancaster and Tyrone Power definitely need to be worked in somewhere.

The obvious Joker candidate is Conrad Veidt, whose appearance in The Man Who Laughs inspired the Clown Prince of Crime. Veidt died in 1943, 3 years after the comic villain first appeared. Had they done a serious Batman movie in the 1960s, then Peter O'Toole would have been ideal.

I could see Peter O'Toole working well.

I could see Stan Laurel as The Riddler. We only think of Stan as the dopier friend of Olly Hardy but in reality, he was the brains behind the operation, a talented writer, director and actor. He was a fairly troubled soul in real life, alcoholic and much-married and might have been able to channel some of that torment into the role. For Two-Face, someone like James Cagney or Kirk Douglas, equally adept at playing villains and heroes?

Charlton Heston would have made a great Nick Fury (before his Ultimates makeover), as might Clint Eastwood, Lee Marvin, Chuck Connors or even James Coburn.

Yul Brynner as The Martian Manhunter I can see, but I also could imagine him as Professor Xavier. The Prof used to be drawn with a bit of an ethnic tinge to him, before everyone started basing him on Patrick Stewart. For Magneto, what about Jack Palance?

Given that Johnny Weissmuller was an Olympic swimmer before playing Tarzan, he'd have been a shoe-in for Aquaman. And what about a young Leonard Nimoy as Prince Namor? Or might Brynner - with a wig - have been well fitted for this role too?

I can't think of any potential Supermans beyond those already suggested. Maybe Victor Mature?

If they'd made Blade in the 1970s, then Richard 'Shaft' Roundtree would have been the man. In the Marvels comic, Alex Ross drew Luke Cage to look like Bernie Casey.

Dr Strange - Christopher Lee?

[Burns] Excelllent. [/Burns]

 

[TheMasterOfOrion]

so I've been thinking about who I would cast as the other major superheroes of the eras and I'd like to hear everyone else's ideas too.

I assume Marvel characters are also included in this thread

Then I give you IRONMAN

 

[Captaindemotion]

Gable would have been a superb Tony Stark/ Iron Man but he died in 1960, 3 years before the character was created. IIRC ,in the original post, Praetor suggested that you try to keep the suggestions to actors who were alive at the same time that the characters were created.

I've been trying to think of a good Lex Luthor (without re-using Yul Brynner again!). The nearest I can get is Telly Savalas. I like his Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service as it's not OTT, quite understated, yet menacing. So he might have brought those qualities to Lex.

Ironically, in Mario Puzo's original script for Superman The Movie (which was much too heavily influenced by the 1960s Batman tv show), there was to be a scene where Superman flew down into the centre of Metropolis, looking for Luthor. Seeing a bald head, he immediately grabbed its owner - only for a lollipop-sucking Telly to turn round and say 'Who loves ya baby?'! Thank God Tom Mankievicz came along and wrote a serious script ...

 

[Dick Whitman]

It very clear from looking at Action Comics #1 that Joe Shuster's original visual model for Superman was Buster Crabbe.

actually, according to shuster he modeled superman after douglas fairbanks sr.

Umm at the risk of pulling out my "Self appointed Superman expert Card" you are wrong! Fairbanks was the inspiration for Superman's leaping. Plus the dual identity of Zorro. But you can't tell me Shuster's Superman looks anything like Fairbanks.