Ryan O'Neal: Roles He was Cheated Out of!

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Flash Gordon

Yentl

Gandhi

Malcolm X

Spider-Man

Bohemian Rhapsody

R2 LOL

The Bodyguard

Yentl, I hadn't thought of that, R2. Good call.

He's lucky he had the hits that he did. The man is a pig.

Dangerous Liaisons 101 Dalmatians Albert Nobbs Fatal Attraction Hillbilly Elegy

BUT R6, Ryan would have been wonderful as Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate, with the inimitable Doris Day as Mrs Robinson!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday in the Murray Head role.

(Honestly, it would've been an improvement -- Head is definitely the weak link in that movie.)

Lawrence of Arabia, Terms of Endearment, West Side Story, Tootsie

The Harriet Tubman Story

If we take his personality and behaviour into account, there are the roles he ought to have gotten:

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer The Silence of The Lambs (in either the Hannibal Lecter or Buffalo Bill role) The Lord of The Rings (as Gothmog, Lurtz, Sharku or Sauron) Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile Pet Sematary (as Zelda - he wouldn't have needed any make up for the role)

Hosting "Jeopardy!"

Redford didn't have much chemistry with his leading ladies and was bland in The Way We Were. O'Neal who worked with Barbra twice would have been an improvement.

Dog Day Afternoon

My Dinner with Andre

Saturday Night Fever

Raging Bull

[quote]He's lucky he had the hits that he did. The man is a pig.

Which reminds me . . . Babe

Apocalypse Now

He was OK with light comedy, playing off his boyish good looks - while he had them.

How about opposite Dunaway in The Champ or 3 Days of the Condor?

He was surprisingly great in So Fine (even with the stretch of playing a Jewish college professor(!). Also surprisingly effective in Barry Lyndon, playing a vapid18th century social climber. Of course that may have just been it was the part he was born to play, and not really acting at all.

Why, indeed?

Mrs. Doubtfire

Kunta Kinte.

R19 now we know why Warren Beatty turned it down

Ryan in Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Kurosawa ruined Ran by not casting him in the Ling Lear role.

any number of comedy roles inhabited by Beatty including The Fortune and Shampoo. Beatty's presence was too heavy for comedy.

R18, I agree that he was good in Barry Lyndon, but SO FINE? Jesus H Christ, that film was so fucking vapid that nothing in it would be considered good, great or fine. Real trash, not even camp.

Yoda in the Star Wars films.

Dawson’s 50 Load Weekend.

As Dawson.

Ryan would have been a hot choice for Making Love instead of the bland Michael Ontkean who looks like he's suffering from gas

The Wolfman.

All of Eli Wallach's roles.

The Jerk

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

He was bland and worthless.

but at least he was hot which the bland, worthless Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds aren't

I don't think he was bland as much as lightweight. Ethan Mordden's book about Barbra says they were going to star O'Neal opposite her but that Sidney Pollack, the director, held out for Robert Redford because the movie needed someone with a powerful (If secretive) presence as a counterweight to Streisand. Because she was clearly going to be very strong as Katie, the Hubbell had to be strong as well.

That's really what Ryan O'Neal lacks: strength.

Also, I don't think any audience was going to buy O'Neal as an author, which is what the guy in The Way We Were is. A screenwriter. That just isn't Ryan O'Neal.

This neither here nor there, but O'Neal's father, who +was+ a writer, is the author of the novel that became the musical Three Wishes For Jamie.

^^^Sorry, I forgot to state upfront that I was talking about The Way We Were.

I think he would’ve been great in George Segal’s role in who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf

and Redford might have been as well R38

The Graduate? No way. Dustin was perfect.

Mike Brady in The Brady Bunch, because if he could've, convincingly, played a loving father, that would've been some serious great fucking acting on his part.

Lincoln

Malcom X

Norma Rae

Lassie

Selena

Gary Coleman

I remember as a youngster seeing The Main Event (still love that song) in the theater and having a big crush on him. Who knew he was such a creep?

Ryan O'Neal would have been believable in American Gigolo as an ageing male escort.