- River Phoenix, Stand By Me, 1986. Dorff was 12 and Phoenix 15. “He’s the one guy I looked up to,” said Dorff. “I’ve often been compared to him. Similar vulnerability. That’s why his death really affected me.” “We saw so many people. I can’t remember them all,” said director Rob Reiner of his finest movie. Well, you tested Dorff, Sean Astin, Ethan Hawk and Rivert Phoenix, for the young Gordie Lachance – and got his high school buddy, Richard Dreyfuss, to voice the older, now a writer, narrating the drama. In Brent Lang’s Variety oral history for Variety, Wheaton (who has since penned several books) praised Reiner for finding four boys “who were the characters we played.” Wheaton was awkward, nerdy, shy – “really, really sensitive. ” River Phoenix was cool, really smart, passionate “and even at that age, kinda like a father figure to some of us. Jerry O’Connell was one of the funniest people I had ever seen in my life… before or since. And Corey Feldman was unbelievably angry… in an incredible amount of pain [with] an absolutely terrible relationship with his parents.”
- Chris O’Donnell, Scent of a Woman, 1991. All the young turks were in the pot for Charlie, the prep schooler babysitting a blind Al Pacino. Dorff, Ben Affleck, Randall Batinkoff, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brendan Fraser, Cole Hauser, Anthony Rapp, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Serrone.
- Gregory Sporleder, Renaissance Man, 1994. Dorff was so right in avoiding what Chicago crtitic Roger Ebert would call “a labored, unconvincing comedy.” Difficult to believe this was from a fusion of Danny De Vito and director Penny Marshall. Someone said (and I’m sorry to say I’e lost the credit): “It’s Dead Poets Society in a military camp. It’s the most nonsensical movie – I mean Marky Mark is in it.”
- Christian Slater, Interview With The Vampire, 1994.
- Chris O’Donnell, Scent of a Woman, 1994. Nothing was to fudge the fact that this was to win Al Pacino his Oscar. Certainly not the intense, confrontational kid that Dorff unveiled at his “amazing” meeting with director Martin Brest – who preferred O’Donnell’s “Golly gee, wide-eyed thing. “
- Robert Sean Leonard, Safe Passage, 1994. He had been first choice for Alfred Singer – the oldest of Susan Sarandon and Sam Shepard’s dysfunctional family of seven sons.5. – Sean Astin, Safe Passage 1994. Due to have been his brother, he pulled out on the death of River Phoenix. The Irish film-maker, Neil Jordan then asked Dorff to succeed Phoenix in Interview With The Vampire, but producer David Geffen wanted a bigger name. And called up Christian Slater!
- Joaquin Phoenix, To Die For, 1995. Many were called, but few were chosen – by director Gus Van Sant – for Jimmy Emmet, one of three fans persuaded by Nicole Kidman’s TV celeb to murder her husband because… “Larry is a nice guy, but he doesn’t know a thing about television.”
- Wesley Snipes, To Wong Fu, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar, 1995. He looked fine in drag. The film did not – beaten by a year in shock and story value by Australia’s Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
- Mark Wahlberg, Boogie Nights, 1996. Now he was losing to the ex-Marky Mark,such as this he rise and fall of a mythical porno stud hero (like John C Holmes) in a three decade drama of the LA porno scene by Paul Thomas Anderson.
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Titanic, 1996.
- Matt Damon, The Rainmaker, 1997. Coppola saw everyone of the right age for John Grisham’s latest legal eagle and fell for Matt’s “youthfulness and innocence.” Grisham called it “the best adaptation of any of my books. I love the movie. It’s so well done.”
- Norman Reedus, The Boondock Saints, 1999. Passed on one of two Irish brothers knocking off Boston Mafiosi in the debut of wieter-director Troy Duffy, mistakenly touted as the new Tarantino. by Harvey Weinstein – well, the F Word was used 246 times (versus 272 in Reservoir Dogs, 265 in Pulp Fiction). The initial release was cut after the Columbine Massacre, but Duffy’s violence lived anew on DVD, leading to a 2009 sequel which did not.
- Ryan Phillippe, The I Inside, 2003. Sudden change of guy waking up in hospital, having lost his last two years – and time-tripping to find them again.
- Ray Liotta, Control, 2003. Change of the man who died for two minutes… and now has no memory for the past two years… This was one dumb movie.
- Stuart Townsend, XIII – The Series, TV, France, 2011. The American had helped create the Canal Plus mini-series based on the comic books by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance, and was all set for opening season of the full series format… when delays led to a schedules clash with his film for director Sofia Coppola, Somewhere. Enter: Charlize Theron’s ex-lover.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 15