- Billy Dee Williams, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, 1979.
- Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: The Next Generation, TV, 1987-1994. Creator blowhard Gene Roddenberry, hanging to to any power he might still have at a studio that hated him, said a bald Englishman could not be his new Kirk. OK, Paramount suits came up with a Top Three: Kotto, Mitch Ryan, Roy Thinnes. Then Roddenberry – power again! – said Stewart should test. In a wig. The actor had his own toupee Fed-exed from London. A bad rug, said one suit. Bad test too. Too British. Then, Roddenberry, as if misunderstanding who it was, said: Let’s test Stewart. They did – with his wig in his pocket. He nailed it. Gene loved him. Now the suits were wary. “But, Gene – he’s bald!” Hah! spake Roddenberry, “Hair doesn’t mean anything in the 25th century.” The PS is from PS: “My agent said there was no way in hell that Star Trek would survive the first season.” It ran for seven seasons.
Birth year: 1939Death year: 2021Other name: Casting Calls: 2