- Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump, 1993. “My name is Forrest Gump. People call me Forrest Gump.” Author Winston Graham (who did not write that line, it was a Hanks adlib) saw John Goodman as his creation. Director Robert Zemeckis did not. His first choice was Harry Anderson – stuck in Dave’s World, 1993-1997. Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Bill Paxton and John Travolta simply refused. Big misake confessed Travolta. Well, they all, agreed on that when Hanks earned his second consecutive Oscar plus an estimated $40m from his profits-deal. Life was really like a box of chocolates or a movie deal. “Ya never know what you’re gonna get.”
- Bill Hader, It: Chapter Two, 2018. By an awful coincidence, Hader was in talks about playing Richie Tozer in the very April 2018 week when Andersonn, the original Tozer, died after a stroke. He was known as Harry the Hat because of his constant fedora. And my favourite quote from the-magician-cum-actor Anderson was: “I’m richer than Davy Crockett.”
Birth year: 1952Death year: 2018Other name: Casting Calls: 2