- Yaphet Kotto, Homicide: Life on the Street, TV, 1992-1999. The bald shaven black actor-producer-director-writer was first in Baltimore producer Barry Levinson’s wanted list for Lieutenant Al Giardello of the Baltimore PD.
- Ronald McCall, Mutant Species, 1994. Director David A Prior had big ideas – Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme opposite Dee Wallace Stone – and Bill Duke as McCall. The suits cut his cloth to match his his B-horror flick. However, Prior got his way about Powers Boothe… and the ex-Captain Marvel, Jackson Bostwick.
- Bruce Dern, Small Soldiers, 1997. Fans thought it wild that director Joe Dante invited The Dirty Dozen to voice the very GI Joe Commando Elite force – Brick Bazooka, Chip Hazard, Butch Meathook, etc. Ernest Borgnine, Jim Brown, Clint Walker, George Kennedy and Dick Miller agreed. (Charles Bronson refused and Richard Jackel died during production). Cheered or jeered, it was not Dante’s first plan. He’d wanted the 1986 Predator guys, led by Arnold Schwarzenegger as Chip Hazard and Duke as Link Static. For publicity over impact as – Schwarzi and Walker apart – most voices of either squad were not instantly recognisable. Not like real stars.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3