Others that occur (these are all real instances of someone either refusing an offer or failing an audition to play characters):
- Frank Sinatra or John Wayne as Dirty Harry;
- Ronald Reagan as Rick in Casablance (might have changed the world of politics too, you never know!)
- Albert Finney as Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean spent a fortune on auditions and costume etc, only for Finney to walk away at the last minute, thus making a star of Peter O'Toole)
-Russell Crowe, Dougray Scott, Ed Norton, Guy Pearce or Mel Gibson as Wolverine
- Mel Gibson as Maximus in Gladiator
- OJ Simpson or Lance Henrikson as The Terminator, with Arnie as Kyle Reece?
- Kenneth Branagh or Daniel Day-Lewis as Withnail, in Withnail & I
- Stuart Townsend as Aragorn in LOTR. To be fair, Townsend auditioned for Frodo and told Peter Jackson he felt that his casting as Strider was a mistake. Personally, I think he would have made a decent Legolas. Aron Eisenberg (Nog in DS9) auditioned for Sam, while I remember original casting rumours included Jude Law for Legolas, Timothy Spall for Gimli and everyone from Tom Baker, Sean Connery and Christopher Lee as Gandalf.
We could have had David Niven or Cary Grant as 007 (the studio wanted them for Dr No, but Eon couldn't afford them. Niven spoofed the role in the original Casino Royale). We might also have had an American such as Robert Refdord, Burt Reynolds, Paul Newman as James Brolin as Bond in the 1970s, had the studio gotten their way. Anther who auditioned for the role is Sam Neill (his audition is on the DVD for Living Daylights, but Charles Dance, who played a villain in For Your Eyes Only, declined to audition (which he's since said he regrets). Terence Stamp has said that he would love to have played the role. And apparently Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Mel Gibson (again!) and Hugh Grant (!) were all offered the role before Pierce Brosnan.
How would Sly Stallone's career have fared had he succumbed to studio pressure (and a larger paycheque) to let Burt Reynolds play Rocky? Or had Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta or Steve McQueen played Rambo? (Although McQueen was dead by the time First Blood was made, he had been offered the role in the 1970s).
