Random Actor//Movie//TV Facts thread

[Jumptheshark]

when he was younger they looked more alike to some

The founding members of the Brat Pack all lived and went to the same school. Rob Lowe(and Chad, Sean Penn(Chris, Emilio estivez and of course Charlie--while some say it was a newspaper article that named them the Brat pack(when the movies started coming out) in came from an interview that Emilio gave talking about how the group were always called brats because they were shooting short movies on weekends and causing trouble in their area

When the article came out during About Last night--all the actors hated being called the brat pack by New York magazinne--This leadf Sean Penn to pull out of movies he had been planning to make with Emilio and Lowe

Martin Sheen's brother, Joe Estevez, has a long B-movie film career (including the mst3k lampooned Soultaker and Werewolf), but when Martin suffered a heart attack during the filming of Apocalypse Now, Joe was brought in to film long shots and voice over work.

 

[Acadmus]

Robert Patrick (T1000) brother Richard Patrick is the lead singer for the band Filter (Hey Man, Nice Shot)

I saw Filter in Montreal years ago (probably 12 years or so) and walked out after 5 songs as they had two warming acts and ran very late - had to drive back to Vermont. I only found out this week from the wife that they'd cancelled a bunch of shows after that so Patrick could enter rehab.

Meanwhile, Robert Patrick turned his T-1000 appearance into being the part-time replacement for David Duchovny on X-Files in the last 2 seasons (and yes, they also appeared together in a few episodes). And then of course starred in Sons of Anarchy. Which probably are fairly well known facts, but maybe someone doesn't know it

Harrison Ford was not the first choice for his two most iconic roles as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, because George Lucas had cast him as Falfa in American Graffiti and didn't want to use him again. Burt Reynolds was the first choice, according to legend, for Han Solo, but the list of actors considered is impressive: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Robert Englund (Freddie Kreuger), and Nick Nolte.

Meanwhile Tom Selleck was actually cast to play Indiana Jones, but CBS wouldn't let him out of his Magnum P.I. contract so he had to withdraw, leaving the door once again open for Ford.

Frankly, I don't see anyone other than Ford in those roles, either...none of these other guys would have brought the right look or attitude. Hell, even Ford can't these days

 

[Jumptheshark]

I saw Filter in Montreal years ago (probably 12 years or so) and walked out after 5 songs as they had two warming acts and ran very late - had to drive back to Vermont. I only found out this week from the wife that they'd cancelled a bunch of shows after that so Patrick could enter rehab.

Meanwhile, Robert Patrick turned his T-1000 appearance into being the part-time replacement for David Duchovny on X-Files in the last 2 seasons (and yes, they also appeared together in a few episodes). And then of course starred in Sons of Anarchy. Which probably are fairly well known facts, but maybe someone doesn't know it

Harrison Ford was not the first choice for his two most iconic roles as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, because George Lucas had cast him as Falfa in American Graffiti and didn't want to use him again. Burt Reynolds was the first choice, according to legend, for Han Solo, but the list of actors considered is impressive: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Robert Englund (Freddie Kreuger), and Nick Nolte.

Meanwhile Tom Selleck was actually cast to play Indiana Jones, but CBS wouldn't let him out of his Magnum P.I. contract so he had to withdraw, leaving the door once again open for Ford.

Frankly, I don't see anyone other than Ford in those roles, either...none of these other guys would have brought the right look or attitude. Hell, even Ford can't these days

Covered Selleck earlier--CBS had no control over Selleck due to the TV actors being on strike and Selleck had signed for Jones prior to Magnum--Selleck is the one who decided he like hanging out in Hawaii waiting fro the strike to end and did not fancy the short shooting schedule of Raiders of the lost arc

 

[Acadmus]

Covered Selleck earlier--CBS had no control over Selleck due to the TV actors being on strike and Selleck had signed for Jones prior to Magnum--Selleck is the one who decided he like hanging out in Hawaii waiting fro the strike to end and did not fancy the short shooting schedule of Raiders of the lost arc

Someone needs to update the official story, then Selleck probably didn't want that out there.

 

[Jumptheshark]

Someone needs to update the official story, then Selleck probably didn't want that out there.

Selleck sort of did leading up to the shooting of the series of magnum he said he thought it was important to have "team building" between him and the rest of the cast"--or something like that and not taken off for 3 months and then getting drop back into the shoot right before.

Because it was two different contracts (Movie and TV actors are not covered by the same contracts) he was permitted to work on Movies during the strike. Raiders, while the brain child of Lucas and speilberg--was not financed by US companies but their English counter parts and there for outside of the control of US contracts. It was not until about 1995 or so that the two sides got on the same page--this was due to many actors (when studios owned actors) deciding to bolt to Europe to either avoid being contract players or get out of being contract players--while the system officially fell in about 1972--overall contracts did not reflect this until the 90's

two thinks about the hollywood system

1) It is one reason why 8 years is the max you can sign someone to a contract(all those baseball and basketball contracts are fun when held up to the legal light) this is one reason why when a TV pilot is shot actors get a 7 year deal(if it went 8 it would actaully cause trouble

2--And who sues to end the Studio system?

Olivia de Havilland

and it is called the de Havilland Law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Law

it just took a long time for the studios to run out of appeals on it

The Karl Urban star trek thing is interesting--that is one reason why with MARVEL movies--they sign actors to X amount of movies and not years

 

[Jumptheshark]

Michael Keaton's Real name?

Michael Douglas

 

[jasonleaffan]

I'd guess next Spring personally. This movie has been in limbo for years.

But at least we know it's coming.

 

[jasonleaffan]

Tim Allen known for voicing Toy Story fan favorite Buzz Lightyear, Home Improvements Tim the tool man Taylor and his staring role in The Santa Claus trilogy. In 1978 he was arrested at a Michigan airport with 650 grams(1.43 lbs) of cocaine. Facing a possible life sentence, he pled guilty to trafficking charges and named names in exchange for a 3-7 year sentence. He was paroled in June of 81 after serving 2 years and 4 months.


On a related note, Johnathan Taylor Thomas aka Jtt was one of the biggest young stars of the 90's besides his role in Home Improvement and voicing Simba in only the first Lion King, he has basically vanished since.

 

[jasonleaffan]

Selleck sort of did leading up to the shooting of the series of magnum he said he thought it was important to have "team building" between him and the rest of the cast"--or something like that and not taken off for 3 months and then getting drop back into the shoot right before.

Because it was two different contracts (Movie and TV actors are not covered by the same contracts) he was permitted to work on Movies during the strike. Raiders, while the brain child of Lucas and speilberg--was not financed by US companies but their English counter parts and there for outside of the control of US contracts. It was not until about 1995 or so that the two sides got on the same page--this was due to many actors (when studios owned actors) deciding to bolt to Europe to either avoid being contract players or get out of being contract players--while the system officially fell in about 1972--overall contracts did not reflect this until the 90's

two thinks about the hollywood system

1) It is one reason why 8 years is the max you can sign someone to a contract(all those baseball and basketball contracts are fun when held up to the legal light) this is one reason why when a TV pilot is shot actors get a 7 year deal(if it went 8 it would actaully cause trouble

2--And who sues to end the Studio system?

Olivia de Havilland

and it is called the de Havilland Law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_Law

it just took a long time for the studios to run out of appeals on it

The Karl Urban star trek thing is interesting--that is one reason why with MARVEL movies--they sign actors to X amount of movies and not years

Just a quick glance at that wiki and if I'm reading it correctly. Sleazy studios would sign artists to multi year contracts and then try to keep them longer based on their interpretation of said contract. With the studio wanting an artist to physically work 365 days for a 1 year contract, regardless if those 365 days were spread out over multiple years?

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Hooper (Richard Dreyfus) was supposed to die from his too-stupid-to-live plan in Jaws (which is what happened in the book), but the method to get the necessary shots of his untimely and wholly preventable death failed, forcing Spielberg to allow Hooper to survive.

The plan? Professional shark researchers would lower a dummy stuffed with chum into a plastic cage and capture live footage of a real shark tearing the poor mannequin to shreds. All to scale to keep the size of the massive shark.

It didn't work when three days of attempts failed to get any sharks to even take a bit of the dummy. So Hooper got to live.

This is called "irony".

 

[Acadmus]

Michael Keaton's Real name?

Michael Douglas

Similar in the vein to David Bowie's real name being David Jones...didn't want to be confused for this guy:

On that note, Mike Nesmith was often referred to as "Wool Hat" due to his green knit hat on The Monkees...but the real reason for the nickname is that's what the producers actually remembered of him from his audition and so they referred to him that way, and the hat became a regular part of Mike's wardrobe on the show since they found it so memorable.

 

[Acadmus]

Tim Allen known for voicing Toy Story fan favorite Buzz Lightyear, Home Improvements Tim the tool man Taylor and his staring role in The Santa Claus trilogy. In 1978 he was arrested at a Michigan airport with 650 grams(1.43 lbs) of cocaine. Facing a possible life sentence, he pled guilty to trafficking charges and named names in exchange for a 3-7 year sentence. He was paroled in June of 81 after serving 2 years and 4 months.


On a related note, Johnathan Taylor Thomas aka Jtt was one of the biggest young stars of the 90's besides his role in Home Improvement and voicing Simba in only the first Lion King, he has basically vanished since.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1828327/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1 He was in several episodes from 2013-15...of a show starring Tim Allen.

 

[Acadmus]

Jackie Chan's early years were spent in the residence of the French ambassador to British Hong Kong, where his parents worked as household staff. When his father emigrated to Canberra, Australia to work as the head cook to the American Embassy, Chan was left behind at the China Drama Academy.

Jackie's big breakthrough in films was as a stuntman, where he appeared (briefly) in Enter The Dragon (he also worked on Fist of Fury).

Chan is also a pop singer and won Japan's Best Foreign Singer Award in 1984.


Jenna Elfman, of the 1997 - 2002 series Dharma & Greg as well as co-starring with Ben Stiller and Ed Norton in Keeping the Faith, made her screen debut in this 1990 music video:

 

[frisco]

Rick Springfield was the lead in a syndicated series (High Tide), TV drama (original Human Target), animated series (Mission Magic), motion picture (Hard To Hold), soap opera (General Hospital although it was an ensemble cast), and TV pilot (Battlestar Galactica).

My Best-Carey

 

[HolyGhost]

Quick hits

Chevy Chase(yes he is chevy chase and you're not) has two claims to fame beyond that most know. In high school and university he played in a band. After he left the band the band renamed itself Steely Dan. Second thing is that Chase got into trouble in history class several times due to his arguing with the teacher about the Battle of Midway. He told the teachers several times that they were wrong about Capt. Browning's role in the battle. When the teachers asked how he knew they were wrong--he responded "My grandfather tells a different story" and the teachers went and who is your Grandfather? "Capt Miles Browning"

Kevin Costner got his start in Hollywood as production assistant on many films in the late 70's before going in front of the camera. Costner was also in the movie "The Big Chill"--he played the unseen role of the friend who died and brought everyone back together. He shot a flashback scene that was cut from the movie. Lawrence Kasden felt bad for doing it so he cast Costner in the Western "Silverado" to make up for it. Costner is also billed as frat boy 1 in the 1981 movie "night shift" that made Michael Keaton a star(he is seen in the morgue pushing a gurney

Paul Newman took over roles that were meant for James Dean. "Someone up there likes me" and the Rack

When the TV Show taxi moved from ABC to NBC in the early 80's, NBC put a clause into the contract of the shows creators that they would get first look at any new shows they create. The first show they created after Taxi was a show called Cheers.

Despite it being in heavy rotation since its first run. The Cast of Gilligan's island never received royalties from the show

Dezi Arnez and Lucil Ball are credited with creating putting shows into "reruns" due to how they shot their show and made sure all the masters were kept

There were only 39 episodes of The Honeymooners filmed. Jackie Gleeson wanted to sue Hanna/Barbara for their creation of the Flintstones saying it was a copy of the Honeymooners. His children talked him out of it and his lawyer pointed out that the Flintstones was a cartoon that had dinosaurs, the lawyer asked which episode of the Honeymooners had the dinosaur in it

While the TV show My 3 sons ran for 11 years. Fred MacMurrey would shot all his scenes for the show in a 65 day window and that was it.

The TV show MASH lasted 8 years longer then the Korean conflict. The TV show Trapper John is considered a spin off from the movie MASH and not the TV series. Even though a blurred photo of Alan Alda and Wayne Rogers appears in the pilot episode. For Trapper John Wayne Rogers was approached about doing the role. But the lawyers got involved saying that could cause conflict and the creators of the TV show then could sue the new show.

Alan Alda was hired 48 hours before the pilot of MASH was scheduled to start filming

 

[HolyGhost]

British actor Bob Hoskins was signed to play Al Capone in the movie "the untouchable". While Robert De Niro was offered the role, he turned it down several times. Two weeks before filming began he agreed to do the film. Hoskins was paid between $500k to $1mill(depending on the source) to agree to drop out of the movie. Hoskins later said "Anytime someone wants to pay me NOT to do a movie is fine by me"

 

[frisco]

Roles Steve McQueen reportedly passed on:

The Execution of Private Slovik - Martin Sheen

• Ocean's Eleven - the original

• Breakfast at Tiffany's - He was unable to accept due to contractual obligations to the series Wanted: Dead or Alive. George Peppard eventually got the role.

• Marooned - Gregory Peck

• King Rat - George Segal

• Return of the Seven - Robert Fuller

• The Kremlin Letter - Richard Boone

• Ice Station Zebra - Rock Hudson

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - Robert Redford

• Dirty Harry - Clint Eastwood

• Play Misty for Me - Clint Eastwood

• The French Connection - Gene Hackman

• Fort Apache, The Bronx - Paul Newman

• The Betsy - Robert Duvall

• First Blood - Sylvester Stallone

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Jack Nicholson

• Apocalypse Now - Martin Sheen/Marlon Brando (both roles)

• Raid on Entebbe - Peter Finch

• Raise the Titanic! - Jason Robards

• A Bridge Too Far - Robert Redford

• Grace Quigley - Nick Nolte

• The Missouri Breaks - Jack Nicholson

• The Towering Inferno II

• Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Richard Dreyfus

• The Driver - Ryan O'Neal

• Convoy - Kris Kristofferson

• The Bodyguard-Kevin Costner

My Best-Carey

 

[reckoning]

Some older sitcoms:

When Howard Hesseman was invited to audition for WKRP in Cincinnati, it was for the role of Herb Tarlek. But when he read the script beforehand, he felt a genuine connection to the character of Johnny Fever. When he arrived, he told the producers how he had all these ideas about the Johnny character. They already had another actor they wanted to play Johnny, but when he dropped out they remembered Hesseman's interest in it.

John Ratzenberger's original audition on Cheers was for the role of Norm. But after he auditioned, sensing that he struck out, he said "Every bar has somebody who thinks they're a know-it-all. You should a character like that on the show". And the role of Cliff Clavin was born.

There was supposed to be a recurring character on Cheers called Mrs. Littlefield, an older lady in a wheelchair who would make Archie Bunker-style politically incorrect comments. She's noticeable in many shots in the pilot episode, and she had several lines in the original script. But the audience didn't react to her, and when the episode needed to trimmed to fit in the timeslot, her lines were the ones that were cut. The character never appeared again.

On Soap, the original killer of Peter was supposed to Chuck, due to a split personality (with Bob being the one to testify against him). But the Chuck/Bob team had become so popular that the show decided not to make him the killer. At the end of the final episode of Season 1 when they showed five characters and said that one of them was the killer, they still hadn't decided which one it would be.

 

[Babe Ruth]

Harrison Ford was not the first choice for Han Solo.. becauseGeorge Lucas had cast him as Falfa in American Graffiti and didn't want to use him again. Burt Reynolds was the first choice, according to legend, for Han Solo, but the list of actors considered is impressive..Robert Englund (Freddie Kreuger)..

Good post. Another piece of Hollywood apocrypha that always tripped me out.. Luke Skywalker & Freddy Krueger were homeboys (& de facto roommates) before they became household names. Englund has said that he encouraged Hamill to read for Skywalker. And at the time of casting, Hamill was basically living on Englund's couch. Years later Hamill refuted/corrected that characterization, but does confirm they were close, & that Englund talked up the Star Wars casting. It's an epic image to me: roommates Freddy Krueger & Luke Skywalker, living (basically) anonymous lives, still seeking fame.

More useless trivia.. remember Englund played a goofy alien in V, before Elm Street broke out.

 

[Acadmus]

Good post. Another piece of Hollywood apocrypha that always tripped me out.. Luke Skywalker & Freddy Krueger were homeboys (& de facto roommates) before they became household names. Englund has said that he encouraged Hamill to read for Skywalker. And at the time of casting, Hamill was basically living on Englund's couch. Years later Hamill refuted/corrected that characterization, but does confirm they were close, & that Englund talked up the Star Wars casting. It's an epic image to me: roommates Freddy Krueger & Luke Skywalker, living (basically) anonymous lives, still seeking fame.

More useless trivia.. remember Englund played a goofy alien in V, before Elm Street broke out.

I was going to add that, since it makes the pairing of Luke Skywalker with a reptilian alien that normally eats humans, which in his case was a friendly but bumbling non-human eater helping them against his own people. Seems like a natural pairing.

 

[NyQuil]

Hooper (Richard Dreyfus) was supposed to die from his too-stupid-to-live plan in Jaws (which is what happened in the book), but the method to get the necessary shots of his untimely and wholly preventable death failed, forcing Spielberg to allow Hooper to survive.

The plan? Professional shark researchers would lower a dummy stuffed with chum into a plastic cage and capture live footage of a real shark tearing the poor mannequin to shreds. All to scale to keep the size of the massive shark.

It didn't work when three days of attempts failed to get any sharks to even take a bit of the dummy. So Hooper got to live.

This is called "irony".

I read a slightly different spin on it:

Footage of real sharks was shot by Ron and Valerie Taylor in the waters off Dangerous Reefin South Australia, with a short actor in a miniature shark cage to create the illusion that the sharks were enormous.[59] During the Taylors' shoot, a great white attacked the boat and cage. The footage of the cage attack was so stunning that Spielberg was eager to incorporate it in the film. No one had been in the cage at the time, however, and the script, following the novel, originally had the shark killing Hooper in it. The storyline was consequently altered to have Hooper escape from the cage, which allowed the footage to be used.[60][61] As production executive Bill Gilmore put it, "The shark down in Australia rewrote the script and saved Dreyfuss's character."[62]

 

[chicagoskycam]

Good post. Another piece of Hollywood apocrypha that always tripped me out.. Luke Skywalker & Freddy Krueger were homeboys (& de facto roommates) before they became household names. Englund has said that he encouraged Hamill to read for Skywalker. And at the time of casting, Hamill was basically living on Englund's couch. Years later Hamill refuted/corrected that characterization, but does confirm they were close, & that Englund talked up the Star Wars casting. It's an epic image to me: roommates Freddy Krueger & Luke Skywalker, living (basically) anonymous lives, still seeking fame.

More useless trivia.. remember Englund played a goofy alien in V, before Elm Street broke out.

I feel like Elm Sreet was already out when I saw him in V but could be wrong. There is so much good stuff in the Star Wars box sets you learn about. The making of the 1st Star Wars was pretty much a disaster at many points.

I think my favourite story with Ford is Indiana Jones is this scene where he shoots this obviously skilled swordsman after so much mayhem. There is actual footage where there was supposed to be some prolonged battle. Ford was sick and tired and eventually suggested just shooting the guy at 2:00 min in. It really worked out for the film and Ford at the time

 

[chicagoskycam]

3 - Van Damme was originally supposed to play the Predator in the first movie, but was apparently difficult to work with and allegedly broke a crew members arm. Though uncredited, the first few times the Predator is on screen, it is actually Van Damme. Originally the Predator was supposed to be small and like a ninja, to counter-point how big Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, and Jesse Ventura were. Hence why they wanted Van Damme. After his dismissal however, they decided they wanted to go in the opposite direction and get someone so big, that they would make the humans look small. Soon after, 7'2" Kevin Peter Hall gave us the now iconic image of the Predator.

This is actually a pretty funny story. Van Damme thought he was going to be in some action flick facing off against Arnold. Instead, he was running around in a red dino suit as the camo Predator. He didn't quite understand the suit would be blotted out.

 

[Brodeur]

In Back To The Future they had filmed a lot of scenes with a different actor as Michael J Fox was busy. They ended up firing the actor and hiring Fox anyway and refilmed all the scenes with Marty.

I finally watched The Office last summer and stumbled on a BTTF related tidbit while reading up on the actors. Melora Hardin (Jan Levinson in The Office) was the original Jennifer for the movie. Before she shot any scenes, they ended up recasting the role to Claudia Wells since Hardin was taller than Michael J. Fox.

 

[HolyGhost]

The Eagles were originally Linda Ronstadt back up band. Don Felder was Tom Petty's guitar teacher