- Keanu Reeves, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, 1987. Producer Scott Kroopf ran into an Italian brick wall when trying to interest iconic producer Dino DeLaurentiss in the project. “He didn’t understand what dudes were until someone said: guys who had big dicks. Then he said ‘Oh, great, now I get it.'” Herek whittled down 200-300 actors to 24 auditioning for the time-travellers meeting Beethoven, Billy The Kid, Freud, Lincoln, Napoleon, Socrates. At one time it looked as if the comic time-travellers would be Brendan Fraser and Pauly Shore (future Encino Manco-stars in 1991). Except the script’s skinny teenagers became more cool when Winter, 21, and Reeves, 22, blew away all other hopefuls – when testing for each other’s role. Also up for Bill S. Preston, Esq, were Sean Penn and River Phoenix.The film proved a surprise hit when released in ’89, after being rescued from a bankruptcy shelf. Washington Post critic Hal Hinson called the duo frisky and companionable. “Like unkempt ponies.”
- Stephen Baldwin, The Usual Suspects, 1994. MTV’s 1990-1994 Totally Pauly star was short-listed for Michael Manus in the classic thriller.
- Johnny Galecki, The Big Bang Theory, TV, 2007-2014. Pauly was in creator Chick Lorre’s mind for physicist Leonard Hofstadter – as socially awkward as his fellow physicist flatmate Jim Parsons as Sheldon Cooper. The series helped keep Lorre sane while living the sudden nightmare of Charlie Sheen during Lorre’s other series, Two And A Half Men.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 3