The Writer's Life 11/30 - 12 &13

Here are eleven actors who turned down iconic roles, from a list at egokick.com. There were actually twelve but one somehow slipped past me, and I didn't want to through the hassle of finding it given the poor performance of my PC. It slows to a crawl on sites with loads of info:
1. John Travolta - Forrest Gump. Thank goodness. Never warmed up to him.
2. Hugh Jackman - James Bond. Committed to X-Men, he didn't want to get involved in another franchise.
3. Mark Wahlberg - Brokeback Mountain. Haven't seen it. Don't intend to.
4. Mel Gibson - Gladiator. Hard to imagine anyone but Russell Crowe in the part, but, had he been younger, Gibson would have been just as good.
5. Bill Murray - The Batman, a script floating around before the Michael Keaton film. Can't picture it.
6. David Boreanaz - Batman. Physically right, bur hard to imagine anyone better than Christian Bale in the role.
7. Jim Carrey - Pirates of the Caribbean. Would have been great, but tied up with Bruce Almighty.
8. Sean Connery - Gandalf in Lord of the Rings. Ian McKellen was fine.
9. Jack Nicholson - Michael in The Godfather. Thank you, Jack, for turning it down.
10. Will Smith - Django Unchained. Not surprising the part was offered to him first.
11. Tom Selleck - Indiana Jones. He was committed to Magnum P.I., opening the way for Harrison Ford.

Here are 13 actors who played college football. I believe all received a full scholarship, but many were not successful on the playing field:
1. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, DT at Miami, member of the 1991 National Champs.
2. Joel McHale of Community - walk on as a TE at Washington St..
3. Channing Tatum - full ride to Glenville St. College in west Va..
4. Burt Reynolds - excellent RB at Florida St..
5. Tommy Lee Jones - All Ivy at Harvard as an OG in 1968.
6. Marc Harmon - excellent QB at UCLA. Arm too weak for pro ball.
7. James Caan - Michigan St.. No other info, so he must not have played much.
8. Kevin James - Cortland St. (NY) RB. Would have thought he was a lineman.
9. Ed O'Neill - Just like his alter ego on Married with Children. Started at Ohio University, transferred to Youngstown St.. Cut by the Steelers.
10. Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed) - San Diego St. LB. Oakland Raiders, '70-'71.
11. Forest Whitaker - Cal Poly Pomona. Back injury ended his career.
12. Nick Nolte - Arizona St.. No other info.
13. Dean Cain - bypassed 17 offers to attend Princeton. Had 12 int's in one season as a DB!

My thanks to the kind folks who bought books today on Bay Parkway.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/l84h63j

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/