10 Actors Who Begged For Their Character NOT To Die
4. Scatman Crothers - The Shining
Legendary musician Scatman Crothers had a career spanning over fifty years by the time his role of Dick Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining came about. From playing in underground Speakeasies in the Prohibition era in the 1930s, to being the voice behind the undeniably awesome Scat Cat from the Aristocats, Hallorann getting the Scatman treatment for The Shining was undoubtedly one of the most hyped parts of the movie for some film-goers of the time.
Dick Hallorann is an important part of Stephen King's novel. For starters, he teaches Danny Torrence about his ability to 'Shine', something which Danny would find very handy when things with his dad kick off, and he is probably the only genuine and caring male adult figure the young Torrence has for a time.
His death in the movie is therefore one of the most infamous moments in the film, and maybe the only blight on an otherwise perfect adaptation. Not only was it a deviation from the source material, but apparently it was something Kubrick himself didn't have planned initially. Scatman was quoted as saying:
"I just wish that they had kept the original ending. The strange thing is that even Stanley’s screenplay has Halloran saving them. I just don’t understand what happened. Kubrick shot things all kinds of ways, but he never shot a version of the ending like in his script or the book. I still don’t know why Stanley changed the story."