Six Actors Comically Miscast as Historical Figures
Gary Cooper, The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938): Sometimes the need to adapt a famous life crashes headfirst into the need to cast a name star. That explains the freak accidents on this list, starting with how the Italian explorer wound up played, improbably, by America’s square-jawed man’s man.
William Bendix, The Babe Ruth Story (1948): Rushed into production while its subject was still alive this soppy, wildly inaccurate ass-kiss is considered both the worst sports movie and the worst biopic. And while there’s plenty of blame to go around—including a scene in which Ruth cures a dying kid with home runs—the presence of William Bendix doesn’t help. At 15, Bendix was Ruth’s favorite bat boy. The connections end there.
John Wayne, The Conqueror (1956): Only Howard Hughes could’ve imagined the Duke as Genghis Khan, in an epic so misguided it was kept out of circulation until 1974. Fun fact: Some filming took place 137 miles south of an aboveground nuclear testing site. Many cast and crew members—including Wayne, co-stars Susan Hayward and Agnes Moorehead and director Dick Powell—later died of cancer.
Chris O’Donnell, In Love and War (1996): Just because Ernest Hemingway is portrayed in his youth doesn’t mean he should be played by Chris O’Donnell.
Kevin Spacey, Beyond the Sea (2004): Kevin Spacey first offered to play crooner Bobby Darin when a biopic was being planned by Barry Levinson and James Toback in 1994. They told him he was too old. Twenty years later, Spacey made the film himself—at 45. Darin was in his 20s when popular and died at 37.
Robert Pattinson, Little Ashes (2008): Some brooding young studs can secretly act. Based on his Salvador Dalí, the Twilight creep ain’t one of ‘em.
COMMENTS
ADD COMMENT
Related Content
Little Ashes
By Matt PriggeWere you aware that before he was a bulging-eyed, wax-mustachioed celeb artiste, Salvador Dalí was a painfully shy, would-be fop prone to puppy-dog crushes that wouldn’t look out of place on Degrassi High?
MORE
Article:
Six Historical Movies that Deliberately Use Anachronistic Music
Article:
Six Horror Movies Where the “Filler” is Superior to the Horror
Article:
Six Films Featuring Women Cross-Dressing
Article:
Six Action Films Made by Non-Action Directors
Article:
Six Actors Who Actually Look Like the Famous People They Portrayed
Article:
Six Worthwhile 2011 Films that Never Played in Philly Theaters
Article:
Six Post-Silent Era Silent Films
Article:
Six Family Classics that Would Draw the Ire of Today’s Far-Right Killjoys
