- Nigel Humphreys, Doctor Who #130: Warriors of The Deep, 1984. The 17 choices for Bulic were Rea, Richard Heffer, Roger Lloyd Pack, Bruce McCulloch, Terry Molloy, Carl Rigg, Donald Sumpter, Dave Warwick, Steve Yardley – plus Nicholas Ball, Tom Chadbon, Maurice Colbourne, Paul Darrow, Michael Gothard, Tony Osoba, Edward Peel from the astonishing army of 203 candidates for just 18 roles in that year’s Lifeforce movie. The difference being Who was science fiction and Lifeforce was science fart.
- Tim Roth, Captives, 1993. That which the Irishman rejected – jailbird meets woman dentist – became another of Roth’s classic performances.
- Tommy Lee Jones, Blown Away, 1994. Obviously, passed on the mad Irish bomber out to destroy most of Boston. Far too close to home. Rea was a Protestant republican and married, at the time, to former IRA bomber Dolours Price. They divorced in 1983- 2003.
- Gary Oldman, Immortal Beloved, 1994. “I’ve hated you for years,” director Ken Russell told fellow UK film-maker Bernard Rose. “I was going to make that movie. I had Anthony Hopkins: he even got into the costume…” Rose knew; when he inherited the project he tried to get Hopkins, too. Rea also turned him down, Rose may have been Ken’s greatest fan, but he was not Russell.
- Stuart Wilson, Death and the Maiden, 1994. In producer Thom Mount’s first line up – with Judy Davis and Sam Neill.
- Richard E Grant, Jack & Sarah, 1995. He split for Hong Kong and a small role in The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea. Well, a guy tending his baby daughter after her mother’s shock death was a bit twee for the actor with a penchant for the bent: The Crying Game, 1992; Breakfast on Pluto, 2005.
- Kurtwood Smith, Chaos. TV, 2010. Rea was the political, manipulative but calm middle-management director Higgins in the Clandestine Administration and Oversight Services – in the pilot only.
- Uri Gavriel, Byzantium, 2011. Neil Jordan and Vampires, Part Two… Nearly two decades after Interview With The Vampire, the Irish director tackled mother an daughter vampires – or, sucreants – that gorge themselves on human blood by inserting a thumbnail into a victim’s throat… something I first encountered in Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s book, The Strain, 2009. When Rea, his usual star proved unavailable, Jordan called in the Israeli Gavriel to pursue Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan. Well, somebody had to do it!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 8