- Leonard Whiting, Romeo and Juliet, UK-Italy, 1967. Part of the idiocy surrounding the Fab Four: Italian stage-screen maestro Franco Zeffirelli tried persuading Macca to be Romeo. In his Liverpudlian accent? He met with Olivia Hussey – booked for Juliet at 15 – and they further communicated with telegrams. (e-mails had not yet been invented). But he felt he could do the part justice. His lover, Jane Asher, had been the ITV Juliet in 1962 opposite David Watson).. Also seen: Hollyqwood’s Jeff Bridges, Richard Dreyfuss, Tim Matheson, Kurt Russell and the two eldest Osmond brothers, Alan and Wayne. Plus Paul’s mellow rock star – and former child actor) – Phil Collins. (Fifty-six yars later, Phil’s daughter, Lily, was first choice for the 2013 version, but pased Juliet to Hailee Steinfeld)
- Julian Glover, The Adding Machine, 1969. The best of British – Beatle Paul and Beyond The Fringe’s Alan Bennett – passed on Shrdlu in the weak UK film version of Elmer Rice’s play about a human adding machine (Milo O’Shea) being replaced at work by a mechanical adding machine. Fellow Beatle Ringo Starr was also offered a rôle.
- Michael York, The Three Musketeers, 1973. Starring, who else, but the Beatles. Of course, of course! They rejected the “old standby” in 1967. Paul would have been D’Artagnan. Of course, of course! The project lost the boys but won their director: Richard Lester. Of course, of course!
- Peter Frampton, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1977. If The Beatles, themselves, weren’t going to play the sergeant’s Band, nor would McCartney go solo as Billy Shears. The Bee Gees substituted The Beatles. So, it as over before it started. At least, Bee Gee baby brother Andy had the grace to refuse being Shears in the mindless morass of most Pepper and Abbey Road songs – forming, said Newsweek’s David Ansen, “a dangerous resemblance to wallpaper.”
- Diane Lane, Streets of Fire, 1984. A beautiful woman subs a Beatle… that takes some explaining. Not too much, as the Beatle in question was the most feminine of the band. He got a copy of the script when keen on trying movie drama. He passed thinking he could do better than director Walter Hill – with his own “script,” Give My Regards To Broad Street. Gulp! And so, Hill’s kidnapped rock star became a (great) dame. Both films tanked, the lamentable Broad Street more so.
- Elijah Wood, Lord of the Rings trilogy, 2001-2003.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Usual occupation: SingerCasting Calls: 6