- 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 castas gay again in The Punisher, 2003.
- Barry Levinson, Rain Main, 1988. JT was not available for the climactic shrink. Dustin Hoffman, who pushed Sydney Pollack into acting in Tootsie, 1982, now suggested his latest director play it, himself – and he did, improvising a lot to keep Tom Cruise sharp.
- Tom Wilkinson, Rush Hour, 1998. Walsh and David Morse were flown up the corporate flagpole for UK diplomat Thomas Griffin. Until someone suggested the obvious – er, why not a real Brit? And that meant Wilkinson, beginning to be in almost everything either side of the pond due to The Full Monty in 1996.
- Robert Forster, Outside Ozona, 1998. Odell Parks was all set for JT, who died shortly before shooting started. His role went to Forster, who most people had thought dead until his an Oscar nod for Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. JT was such a popular character actor that all his three final films (plus Ozono) were dedicated to his memory: Hidden Agenda, The Negotiator, Pleasantville.
Birth year: 1943Death year: 1998Other name: Casting Calls: 4