- Nigel Williams, Red Dwarf #32: Legion, TV, 1993. Almost inevitably, Fry was first choice for the titular liofeform that is highly cultured, sophisticated and high IQed. (Odd that, given that it is composed from the minds of our favourite space nuts!)Maybe Fry discovered that (like poor Williams), he’d be sewn into his costume all day!
- David Ogden Stiers, Pocahontas, 1994. When did you ever hear anyone say: Man I hated the movie, kept trying to work out where I’d heard the Governor’s voice before… Disney barred Richard White from voicing Governor Ratcliffe because the public would recognise him as Gaston’s voice in the 1990 Beauty and the Beast toon. As if actors cannot change their voices. And then… and then !!… they gave it to DOS and had him also voice his own manservant, Wiggins! Which proved an actor can change his voice, wouldn’t you say… Five Brits were also in the frame: Fry, Brians Blessed and Cox, Rupert Everett, Stephen Fry, Patrick Stewart. Well, there were no US accents in the 17th Century.
- Daniel Hill, Love’s Labour Lost, 1999. Fry declined the offer to play Mercade in actor-director Kenneth Branagh’s fourth Shakespeare movie project.
- Oliver Reed, Gladiator, 1999. Fry found himself testing the role of the slave dealer, Proximo. “I had to imagine I was I inspecting some slaves and how likely they were to be good gladiators.” Director Ridley Scott told him: “Just march up and down and maybe grab one of them between the legs and give it a twist to see how manly he is.” While Fry is thinking: I’m Stephen Fery, a helpless old queen, let me pretend to be some wildly butch gladiator trainer… Being asked to stalk up and down twisting potential gladiators was one of the weirdest things I’d ever heard a human bejng say.” Proximo became Reed’s final performance; in fact, he died before competing his role – Scott did resurrected him with digital technology
- Christian Camargo, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, 2006. Why play Lord Henry Wotton gushing Wildean aphorisms when he had been Wilde, himself, in 1997. Particularly when Variety said the (updated) script showed “a cavalier disregard for narrative logic, character development and Wildean wit.” And audiences!
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5