Was first choice for Col Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. He'd have lit up those scenes in the temple like a napalm strike.

Instead we got a mumbling fat man.

The above-mentioned Mr. Nicholson was appalling as the Joker in the first modern(ish) Batman film. He basically played Jack Nicholson as done by Mike Yarwood with some facepaint. I always thought Peter Cook would have made an excellent Joker in his "Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door", mode. Unfortunately he wasn't a very good actor and he would have had an even bigger beergut than Nicholson around the time of the first Tim Burton Batman...as for Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne - total miscasting.

I like Lazenby as Bond in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', let me make that clear. But I do think he was miscast. He strikes me as a really strange choice for the role - after Sean Connery had made such an impact in the earlier films, here you get a man who has the look, but doesn't quite have the same kind of screen presence or charisma. He does his best, but never quite fits the role in the same way the other actors did. It would have been interesting to see how he'd have developed in further films, but of course, he'd already decided not to return by the time OHMSS was released...

Also, in a similar vein to the Reg Varney one above, Trevor Bannister as the junior salesman Mr Lucas in 'Are You Being Served?' - he was pushing 40 at the time, although he's clearly meant to be playing a character at least 15 years younger...

David Barry was actually 28 when supposedly a fifth-former at Fenn Street. Age miscasting, yes, but character - absolutely not...

She was 30.

Stockard Channing was 34!

John Hannah was/is too fresh-faced and athletic to play Inspector Rebus on ITV.

Hale & Pace as Dalziel and Pascoe anyone?

Apparently, Andrew Sachs was the original choice to play Victor Meldrew.

Kirk Douglas who bought the rights to 'One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest' wanted to play McMurphy until his son convinced him he was too old for the role.

Lawrence Olivier, Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, Anthony Perkins and Mia Farrow - this could have been the cast for which movie classic?

The Dirk Maggs adaptation of Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently was utterly ruined by casting Harry Enfield as Dirk. The rest of the cast were pretty good, but Enfield (who I normally don't mind at all) turned in one of the single worst performances of his career. He sounded flat, stilted and just totally off the pace of what was going on.

The first Dirk Gently is one of may favourite novels ever and this just stomped on it like an elephant with gout.

was famously up for being casted as Bond villain, Dr No in Dr No (1962)

He responded, "No, no, a thousand times... NO!"

Joseph Wiseman stepped in.

Dawn Penn was unavailable at the time. HaaaaaAAAAaaGHhhha.*

*6Music Jon Holmes can have that gag.

John Le Mesurier and Arthur Lowe were originally cast as their opposite characters (Sgt. Wilson and Captain Mainwaring).

Regarding Bond, I think Roger Moore was the original first choice but was unavailable due to work with The Saint.

...as James Bond.

Anyone who tries to look hard but ends up pouting (see above) just can't be James Bond.

In absolutely everything.

I agree with Capote - Marilyn Monroe would have made a more credible Holly than Hepburn (good as Hep was).

Double post.

Billy Boyd as Bonden in 'Master and Commander' The film was a very good version of two of O'Brian's novels, but all I could see whenever Billy appeared was a hobbit trying to be a rough tough sailor, and missing by miles.

Damn good attempt from Clive, but just didn't have the range IMHO - now if they'd cast Ian Hart....

... as Mad Eye Moody in Harry Potter. He's perfectly fine, but when I read the books I envisaged a more eccentric sort of character, and Gleeson plays it a bit too straight for my liking. I'd have gone for Billy Connolly, or perhaps Tom Baker.

was 40 in the Graduate. Anne Bancroft was 46...I can't imagine anyone who could have taken the role better than Hoffman, mind

Joe Pesci was about 48 when he played 'Tommy' in Goodfellas who was meant to be 23. Hence the strained dialogue in the Billy Bats scene where they are actually about the same age but Billy's talking to him like he's a kid.

Also Scorsese's first choice for the Henry Hill role was Robert DeNero, who again would have been playing a kid in his 40s. DeNero saw sense and stepped into the side role of Jimmy Conway.

You wouldn't change a thing though.

Also Dirty Harry - a character synonimous with Eastwood - was created for Steve McQueen, who wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.

The inverse of the Reg Varney (53) playing a character much younger (say 30/35 (ish)) was Stephen Lewis (Blakey).
Blakey is though to be, and certainly looks and acts like he's in his mid-fifties.
Stephen Lewis was only 35 when the series started

curly-haired kid who played 'Just William' on BBC recently was completely miscast. William Brown was a rough, tough, rebellious gang leader; not the type of kid who'd be beaten up for his lunch money on a daily basis.
Interesting fact (?) - actor who played George Roper appeared as Ginger in one of the early movies.

Robert Downey Jnr as Sherlock Holmes. Leave off.

I think it was an inspired choice. Old ferret face was a wonderful Bridget for me.
Don't really like her in many other roles (Cold Mountain aside) but I think she really captured the spirit of the character.

Seriously. Okay, many of his performances were more wooden than a piece of two-by-four, but the man looks great and has star quality.

Even if he keeps making guff, we'll still love him for it. While better actors fall by the wayside, Keanu will live on. So will Sean Connery, despite him turning in the same performance film-after-film.

is producing the forthcoming Jack Reacher adaption. He has cast himself as the 6' 5" Reacher:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790724/

Norman Wisdom turned down the role of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.

Malcolm McDowell confessed to basing Alex from A Clockwork Orange on Eric Morecambe.

In Coronation St, Gail (Helen Worth} is only five years younger than her screen mother, Audrey (Sue Nicholls)

Brad Pitt. Totally miscast in "The Devil's Own", playing an Irish terrorist. The accent was frankly an affront to Irishmen (I am a native N Irishman and can speak with some authority on Ulster accents).

Then we have Mel Gibson in Braveheart. I'm no Scotsman but he sounded like he'd swallowed ten tins of shortbread, a gallon of cock'a'leekie soup washed down with a case of Glenfiddich. Scotsmen, do please tell me if I'm wrong.

Of course a thread like this must mention one of the greatest examples of miscasting in Hollywood history, John Wayne as a Roman centurion in "The Greatest Story Ever Told".

As the story goes, when director George Stevens was shooting the crucifixion scene, he thought Wayne was merely going through the motions and is said to have told him "Duke, more awe please, more awe".

When the cameras started rolling Wayne took his position and, gazing at Jesus in full death throes, exclaimed in his trademark drawl "AWWW, shurely this man is the son of Gawwd!"

in Britain.

Ross Kemp a high powered barrister? Yes! Yes! Robson Green a clinical psychologist? Of course!

The other two are David Jason and Martin Clunes

Fight Club could have been a genuine classic rather than a pretty OK film if old cheekbones hadn't been making like Stallone on a lecture circuit for most of it. Wooden? You could see his nose growing.

That said, I struggle to imagine a better physical fit for the part. Tyler is suppose to be "handsome in that everything-blond way" according to Pahlaniuk, which fits, but he's just not clever-seeming enough to pull that character off convincingly. He's beautiful, but he's not charismatic.

Norman Bates was meant to be birdlike not beefcake.

According to latest Word, they are in their early-to-mid twenties. If the show was cast in 1969, we'd have had Terry Scott, Reg Varney, Norman Wisdom and Ronnie Corbett. Actually, that would have been brilliant.

I always thought that Mike the Cool Person in the Young Ones was a bit of a spare part. Could another actor have sprinkled some magic dust on it?

Bonfire of The Vanities yet? An entire film miscast.

Much too old, I'm afraid, to play Philip Marlowe:

Pete Postlethwaite? Didn't really chime, did it?

You had the sense that he felt the ridiculousness of it, but went along with things and thought of the paycheque.

Hammer films were going to make a British gangster version and in the lead role was old Nellie Pledge herself,Ms Hylda Baker.
O J Simpson as the Terminator nearly happened.

1. Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. (That awful accent).
2. Mia Farrow as Daisy in The Great Gatsby (She's supposed to be different, thrilling, sassy, gorgeous: Mia Farrow is just dull as dirt in the role).
3. Sophia Coppola in The Godfather III (horrific acting, ruins the movie for me).
4. Kevin Costner in Robin Rood (again, accent trouble; although Alan Rickman makes the whole movie worth watching).
5. George Clooney as Batman (not a physical enough actor, or just not talented enough to pull off an action hero, because Michael Keaton wasn't an action hero before he did Batman and he handled the part believably).
6. Hayden Christensen in Star Wars (all 3 movies he was in).
7. Both actors who played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter movies. Neither one quite captured the character.

as the lead in a sci-fi thriller. Even one as bad as Torchwood. Also that Minder re-make with Shane Ritchie. And Christopher Eccleston - a good actor but totally not Doctor Who.

But thought Tennant was wide eyed and over the top (but I'm not really a Dr Who fan).

I was miscast in my own life.

is three days old and yet no mention of Leonardo DiCaprio who looks like he has wandered on to every film set as though he has lost his way from a school play.
Whatever great acting chops he may have his physical appearance can never win me over for roles where he is playing someone over 18.

When the TV version of Brideshead Revisited began filming, Anthony Andrews had been cast as Charles and Jeremy Irons as Sebastian; luckily the producer thought "I'm sure there's a way we could use these two actors even more effectively", and decided it might be fun to swap them over. I doubt that happens very often, and even less often with the result that it's BAFTA nominations all round.

in The Wire. Far too young. Just takes the dash of realism off the finest two series.

Some directors have a fascination with fresh faced young actors in leading roles that don't really work. DiCaprio and Reeves in particular as jimmyshoes mentions above. Fantastic in "Catch Me If You Can" but hopelessly miscast in "The Departed" and "The Aviator".

Anyone see Reeves turn as Jonathan Harker in the otherwise excellent, Dracula? I'm sure he played it for laughs.

Diane Keaton in "The Godfather". Not sure whether it's a miscast or just that she was so wooden, Muffin The Mule would have walked away with an Oscar given that dialogue.

...playing drug addicts/hi-rise dwellers/down n outs. As seen in every UK TV detective show.

Any dentists here? Yellowy, crooked, temporary crowns....Dragons Den....I'm going to make you an offer.

....John Terry.
Who ever thought that was a good bit of casting?

Filmed & finished with one cast, then ditched, re-written and re-filmed with a mostly new one:
Denholm Elliott replaced Charles Durning,
Jack Warden replaced Denholm Elliott's original role,
Elaine Stritch replaced Maureen O'Sullivan,
Sam Waterston replaced Sam Shepard (and Christopher Walken who did a few weeks' work before Woody decided he wan't right for the role.)

Still not a great film, but probably better than you remember...

Has anyone on the board seen any of the Swedish films based on the Stieg Larsson trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo et al)?

The Blomqvist character in the books is in his forties, but plainly attractive to women (hence his constant womanising in all three books).

The films, meanwhile, cut out most of the womanising, probably for understandable reasons (there's an awful lot of plot to squeeze into the films). So who do they cast as the middle-aged sex-on-a-stick?