5 Famous Roles Obviously Written For A Different Actor

4 Jurassic Park's Alan Grant Was Meant For Harrison Ford

One of the reasons Jurassic Park holds up so well is its use of practical effects in addition to CGI. Animatronics were used to achieve lifelike close-ups of giant dinosaurs, actors in raptor costumes created their iconic movement, and Sam Neill was used to simulate Harrison Ford. Everything about Dr. Alan Grant screams Harrison Ford except the "not being played by Harrison Ford" part. Not that they didn't try.

On the page, Dr. Alan Grant is an oddly specific character -- one who seems slightly familiar. Despite being a paleontologist, he isn't your typical ivory tower academic. He's a " barrel-chested," rough-and-tumble paleontologist " you wouldn't want to get in the way of." A colleague calls him "a digger," meaning the only thing that matters to him is being out on site, digging for an ancient find. When he's running for his life, we find out he's so good at derring-do that you'd think he was tenured by the Department of Jungle Survival.

Does that remind you of anyone? Say, a rough-and-tumble archaeologist who is only happy while running for his life through a jungle? Someone with a pretty dope hat?

3 Sister Act Was Supposed To Be A Bette Midler Vehicle

If you're at all familiar with Sister Act, you probably know it as "that movie where Whoopi Goldberg is a singing nun." That's the whole joke, right? See, because nuns don't usually look or act like Whoopi Goldberg! What's next, Danny Devito as Arnold Schwarzenegger's twin? Hell, that's the whole point of the "sister" pun in the title.

If we told you the role was meant for someone else, you'd probably have to stop and think about what other "sisters" were even on Hollywood's "list of people allowed to star in comedies" at the time. If you guessed "basically none," you are sadly correct!

That's why Bette Midler was originally supposed to star in the film. That makes sense in part because she was known as a singer and in part because "Clearly Jewish woman pretending to be a nun" was considered even more hilarious as a fish-out-of-water story. But while substituting Whoopi for Bette probably made for better comedy, doing it without altering the script at all inadvertently produces some weird results. Like Whoopi's talk about "you people" being "so ... Catholic" taken on a different meaning coming from star famous for Beaches.

2 Cousin Vinny Was Supposed To Be Played By A Huge, Imposing Tough Guy

Vincent LaGuardia Gambini is one of history's most beloved fictional big-city lawyers who have also released awful albums of lounge music. For sure top 20. But it's debatable whether or not the character would have endured long enough to get a terrible album opportunity without the performance of the legendary Joe Pesci.

Who else could have pulled off this audacious wisecracking character? If you were thinking Andrew Dice Clay, you'd be absolutely 100 percent wrong, but you'd also be on the same page as the filmmakers. Yes, the original plan was for the "Diceman" to star as the smart-ass cousin, esquire. 20th Century Fox's deal with Clay didn't end up working out, costing him the iconic role and sparing us the inevitable addition of "scandalous" nursery rhymes.

But Pesci wasn't exactly next in line. In fact, the description of Vinny from the original screenplay makes it pretty clear which of the actors from Goodfellas screenwriter Dale Launer envisioned for the role:

1 The Sheriff In Blazing Saddles Was Supposed To Be Richard Pryor

If you were writing Blazing Saddles in 1973 -- about a black sheriff in the Old West who uses his razor-sharp wit to run intellectual circles around a hopelessly racist town -- you would have one obvious choice: Richard Pryor. And if that same character had to also pull off vaudevillian gags without disrupting the tone of the movie, you'd definitely want master performer Richard Pryor. And even if you were too dense to notice all of that, you know who wouldn't be? Your co-writer, genius comedian Richard Pryor.

That's exactly why Blazing Saddles stars the incredible comedic performance of ... Cleavon Litte?