- Grant Gustin, Arrow, TV, 2012-2020. Guys galore were seen for Flashing in Green Arrow/Oliver Queen’s show. Including Texan actor-producer Matt Barr, Young and Restless alum Mike Kalinowski, actor-composer James Mackay and Pittsburg’s Andy Mientus. All to no avail as casting director David Rapaport saw Gustin first, knew there was no one better than this “affable, dorky, charming, fun dude.” Gustin made such an impact that a pilot was ordered to give the scarlet speedster his own series in the Arrowverse during 2014-2021. Gustin was born in 1990, the year of the first Flash series starring John Wesley Shipp – now playing Gustin’s father. And to closes the circle, they were both born in Norfolk. Virginia. Must be something in the water.
- Alexander Skarsgård, The Legend of Tarzan, 2014. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: “To lose one hero may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.” Unusually, only two Americans were in the mix for the first 21st Century ape-man. Matt Barr from Texas – and Kevin Costner’s Hatfields & McCoys mini-series. And the Olympic tradition of the great Johnny Weissmuller and passable Buster Crabbe, Maryland swimmer Michael Phelps, history’s most decorated Olympian – 23 gold medals from five Games, during 2000-2016. Plus three Brits: Henry Cavill, the current Superman, Tom Hardy, the new Mad Max, and Charlie Hunnam, who looked a lot like Bass. However the Swedish Skarsgård won the loin cloth, the vines and the flop when the film was not released until the summer of 2016.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 2