Believe it or not these very successful actors did actually turn down some great roles during their careers and their loss was another actor’s gain.
The great Cary Grant (one of my all time favorite actors) actually was approached by Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to play James Bond 007. Cary turned it down because he did not want to get involved in a film series. As we all know Sean Connery was then contacted, got the role and was very successful playing Bond.
Burt Lancaster turned down the lead in Ben Hur and the role went to Charlton Heston for which he won an Academy Award.
We all know Dustin Hoffman for his lead role in the hit movie “The Graduate”, well did you know that Robert Redford turned that role as Ben Braddock down.
James Cagney turned down the role of Alfred P Doolittle in the 1964 hit ” My Fair Lady”. He was offered a million dollars but he did not want to come out of retirement.
Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf from Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy because he didn’t want to spend 18 months filming in New Zealand.
Kirk Douglas’s agent convinced him not to accept the role of drunken gunfighter Kid Shelleen in ‘Cat Ballou” and the role went o Lee Marvin for which he won an Academy Award.
Alan Ladd felt he was too old for the part of Jett Rink in the movie “Giant” so he turned it down and the role went to James Dean.
Steve McQueen was asked by Paul Newman to star opposite him in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” but McQueen insisted on Top billing so when his request was turned down he refused to appear in the movie. We all know that Robert Redford took the role and became one of the hottest most sought after stars of the seventies.