- Guy Rolfe, Snow White and The Three Stooges, 1961. Who’da thunk it. Top actor and drama teacher Landau being offered the villain in the Stooges’ costliest endeavor. Snow White On Ice, really, due to US Olympic skating champ Carol Heiss. With the Stooges as glorified extras. That duiea didnlt last lng. They took over from bring Heiss and and let the suave Brit do his evil thing as Count Oga.
- Marne Maitland, Cleopatra, 1963.
- Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek: The Cage (1st pilot), TV, 1964
- Max von Sydow, Hawaii, 1966. After a year or more on Cleopatra, five months on The Greatest Story Ever Told and four on The Hallejelujah Trail, Landau wanted no more epics. “They’re eating up my life. I’d like a picture with four walls and two actors.” Instead, he did Nevada Smith with pal Steve McQueen (in 1955, they were the only two of 2,000 auditioners accepted into the Actors Studio) and his Hawaii clergyman went to his Greatest Story’s Christ…
- Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek, TV, 1966-1969. “Spock had no emotion. That would kill me, I told Gene Roddenberry, it’s the antithesis of what I care about.” Next to the Star Trek office was that of Mission: Impossible creator Bruce Gellar, who kibbutzed at Landau’s acting class (where he taught Robert Blake, Harry Dean Stanton, and, of course, Jack Nicholson). And that’s how and why Rollin Hand was born. Ironically, when Landau quit M:I over a salary dispute in 1969, his replacement was… Spock.
- Jack Palance, Batman, 1989.
- Jerry Orbach, Crimes and Misdemeanours, 1988. First off, Woody Allen saw Landau as the brother of his eventual role of Judah. Great work from both guys in the script (written in Rome) that went through no less than 26 titles. Including: Dr Shenanigans, Decisions, Making A Killing, Two Lives, Anything Else, Crime and Vanity, The Lord’s Prayer, Acts, Scenes of Good and Evil, The Eyes of God, Windows of the Soul, Hope and Darkness, Choices in the Dark, Split Decisions and finally (supposedly), finally: Brothers.
- Tommy Lee Jones, JFK, 1991.
- Joe Pesci, JFK, 1991.
- Judd Hirsch, Independence Day, 1996. Roland Emmerich’s first choice for the role of Jeff Goldblum’s father was still making Pinnochio.
- James Gandolfini, Perdito Durango, 1997. Talked to Spanish producer Andres Vicente Gomez about fiming Barry Gifford’s novel featuring his Durango lady – already featured in David Lynch’s Wild At Heart.
- James Woods, Hercules, 1997. The directors had no idea who should voice Hades. “Why don’t you ask Jack?”suggested their Philoctetes, Danny Vito. Jack was keen. For his nomal fee – between $10m and $15m. Disney offered… $500,000. Hence talks began with David Bowie, James Coburn, Willem Dafoe, Phil Hartman, Michael Ironside, Michael Keaton, Martin Landau, Broadway’s Terrence Mann, Ron Silver, Kevin Spacey, and Rod Steiger. Then, John Lithgow got the gig and recorded it all. Next thing he knew, Jimmy Woods was adlibbing Hades to glory with Robin Williams/Aladdinbravura. And made it a growth industry with the TV series and various video games.
Birth year: 1928Death year: 2017Other name: Casting Calls: 10