Scott Glenn

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

  1. Leonard Frey,  Fiddler on the Roof, 1970.    Seen for Motel…
  2. Paul Michael Glaser,  Fiddler on the Roof, 1970.    … Perchik…
  3. Ray Lovelock,  Fiddler on the Roof, 1970.    …   and Fyedka during the January 1970 auditions.

  4. Cliff Robertson, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, 1972.  The role was Cole Younger, joining forces with Robert Duvall’s Jesse James. “No sense getting into that,” said Glenn. “Something political went down.” (Robertson had an Oscar, Glenn did not). Twelve years later, director Philip Kaufman made amends…
  5. Harrison Ford, Blade Runner, 1981.    UK wiz Ridley Scott spent a long time sniffing out the perfect Deckard.  From top notchers Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman (the first choice was keen… on making it a totally different character, of course), Robert Mitchum, Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino…  to such excellent journeymen as William Devane, Robert Duvall, Peter Falk, Frederic Forrest, Scott Glenn, Tommy Lee Jones, Raul Julia, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken.  Martin Sheen was too exhausted after Apocalypse Now. In sheer desperation, choices lowered to Cliff Gorman, Judd Hirsch. Even the Virginian Morgan Paull stood a chance, having played Deckard in Scott’s tests of potential Rachaels. (He was given Holden for his pains). Plus Arnold Schwarzenegger, not yet seen as Conan, much less Terminator.  And for probably the last time in such an illustrious list,  the fading star of Burt Reynolds.
  6. Sam Shepard,, The Right Stuff, 1982.  A dozen years after offering him  in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid, director Philip Kaufman called up Glenn again to be jet [pilot Chuck Yeager. “I’d prefer to be Alan Shepard.”  OK, fine!   (Sam won his only Oscar nomination).

  7. Christophe(r) Lambert, HIghlander, 1985.   Once Sean Connery refused the lead (for the splashier role of the 2,000-year-old Ramirez), finding the titular and immortal Connor MacLeod was not easy.  Kurt Russell actually won the role but his lover, Goldie Hawn, insisted he stay home; he dealt with Big Trouble in Little China, instead. So you can imagine the anguish of the six producers when, after also being turned down by Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Mel Gibson, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Hulk Hogan, William Hurt, David Keith, Mickey Rourke, Sam Shepard, Marc Singer (the too busy top choice), Sting (also asked for a song), Patrick Swayze and Peter Weller… that they discovered that Australian director Russell Mulcahy’s French choice of the new Tarzan, Christophe(r) Lambert, could hardly speak English.  He learned. In six weeks.    

  8. Clancy Brown, HIghlander, 1985.   Sean Connery and Christophe(r) Lambert (!) were set as the Scottish heroes while Australian director Russell Mulcahy set about choosing his villainous Kurgan, the “strongest of all the immortals.” The wish list included Scott Glenn, Rutger Hauer, Nick Nolte, Kurt Russell, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Roy Sheider. Clancy Brown said he based his Kurgan on… Schwarzie’s Terminator. After thoughts about 007’s Oddjob  with the baddy in a good suit and a bowler hat!  (Glenn and Kurt Russell were also seen for Connor MacLeod – and made Backdraft, 1990, also written by Gregory Widen).

  9. Gary Busey, Lethal Weapon, 1986.   There were 39 possibles for Mel Gibson’s suicidal cop.  Just seven  for this bad man target, Mr Joshua. John Saxon was first choice – but he was having A Nightmare on Elm, Street: Dream Warriors.  Next up: Glenn, Keith Carradine, Tommy Lee Jones, Ron Perlman, Christopher Walken, James Woods… and a slimmed-down Busey rescuing his career.
  10. Will Patton, No Way Out, 1986.  For his excellent thriller (labyrinthine and ingenious, said Roger Ebert) the under-praised Aussie director Roger Donaldson looked at his fellow Aussies Bryan Brown and Colin Friels for the villain Gene Hackman’s aide.  Plus Alec Baldwin, Michael Biehn,  Richard Dreyfuss, Scott Glenn, John Heard, Stephen Lang, Gary Oldman, Ron Perlman, Sam Shepard, James Spader, JT Walsh.  Patton got the gig and  was cast  as gay again in The Punisher, 2003. 

  11. Tom Berenger, Platoon, 1986. 
  12. Kurt Russell, Tequila Sunrise, 1988.    The LA buddies on either side of the law – dealer and cop – went from Jeff Bridges-Nick Notle to Beatty-Scott Glenn to producer Thom Mount’s winning combo. Gibson-Kurt Russell.  Except, as Chicago critic Roger Ebert pointed out  about Towne scripts: “Nothing is as it seems. We learn more about the characters when they’re not on the screen.” Towne and Russell based Nick Frescia on another contender, Pat Riley, coach of the LA Lakers basketball squad. “Riley’s look was right… arrogantly confident but not offensive,” said Russell. So he used it again as Furious 7 and 8’s Mr Nobody in 2014 and 2016. Towne became a director with Personal Best, l982, starring… Glenn.

  13. Sam Shepard, Thunderheart, 1991.   
    UK director Michael Apted’s first thriller was inspired by 57 unsolved murders on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the 1970s as The Traditionals fought Tribal government goons… making Pine Ridge (pop: 1100) the Murder Capitol of the Nation. The only cliché in sight is the usual pairing of old cop-young cop (or FBI agents here), the rest was the usual Apted brilliance.  He shuffled eleven choices for the older agent, Frank “Cooch” Coutelle: Brian Cox, Robert De Niro, Scott Glenn, Dennis Hopper, Tommy Lee Jones (also up, at 45,  for the younger Ray Levoi), Harvey Keitel, Stephen Lang, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Ron Perlman.  So where was Marlon Brando?  “He’s gone on record so many times about the current state of the Indians, I almost expected him to ring me,” Apted told me in Deauville, France.  “I asked him to play the head of the FBI – just one day’s work in Washington.  I thought it might appeal to him – as a cause.”  It did not.

  14. Matt Craven, K2, 1992.    Never mind, Glenn encountered the massive K2 mountain later… in Vertical Limit, 2000. 
  15. Sam Neill, Event Horizon, 1996.  The title warned us… In astrophysics, an event horizon is a boundary beyond which events cannot affect any observers. Exactly!   Glenn and Bill Pullman veteoed  being Dr William Weir  aboard he spaceship Lewis and  Clark (!) on a rescue mission in director Paul WS Anderson’s The Shining in Space. “All style, climax and special effects,” complained critic Roger Ebert. “The rules change with every scene.”
  16. Stuart Wilson, The Mask of Zorro, 1997.     Antonio Banderas was the (perfect) hero versus the villainous Rafael Montero. But which one? Giancarlo Giannini, Scott Glenn, Lance Henriksen, Edward Jamnss Olmos, Sam Shepard. It became a third gig for Wilson and Bond director Martin Campbell, after   No Escape, 1993, Vertical Limit, 2000.
  17. Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy, TV, 2008-2013.      Glenn was the biker gang leader Clay Morrow in the town of Charming – and then all his scenes werere-shot with Perlman once the producers decidedon a different angle.

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  16