10 Actors Who Appeared In Movies By Trickery

9. Heath Ledger - The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus faced perhaps the worst production hurdle that any movie possibly can - the death of its star mid-way through filming.

After roughly one-third of the fantasy epic had been completed, Heath Ledger died while on a break from shooting in New York, causing the production to shut down and prompting intense speculation about what would become of it.

Gilliam's initial instinct was to scrap the film entirely, but after taking just a month to re-group, he decided to persevere, re-working the film's narrative to have Ledger's protagonist Tony transform his appearance as he ventures through the magical Imaginarium.

Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell quickly signed on to serve as Tony's alternates, ensuring that the film would be completed and what footage Ledger had shot would be seen by fans.

The final film is undeniably messy, but as far as salvaging potential trainwrecks go, it's an incredible achievement. That it befell a director of Gilliam's creativity, and whose works tend to dabble in reality-bending fantasy anyway, was extremely lucky.