10 Actors Who Originally Turned Down Their Most Iconic Roles
4. Henry Fonda Wasn't Comfortable Playing A Villain - Once Upon A Time In The West
When Once Upon A Time in the West went into production, Henry Fonda was renowned as a typical nice guy, having played a good number of strong-willed, moral gentlemen across the span of a successful Hollywood career.
Most famously, he appeared as Juror No. 12 in Sidney Pollack's 12 Angry Men, which pretty much cemented his reputation as "the heroic type."
Trust Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone to want to shake things up by casting Fonda in the role of the ruthless and cold-blooded killer Frank in his western magnus opus, having envisioned a scene in which a man shoots a child, only for the camera to pan up and reveal the face of Henry Fonda. Gasp!
Naturally concerned for his nice guy image, however, Fonda turned down Leone's request for him to play the villain, but that didn't stop him: the director flew to Hollywood to meet with Fonda, and explained his idea for the character's reveal. Fonda still wasn't sure, but - at the insistence of Eli Wallach, who played Tuco in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - he eventually agreed. So we have Tuco to thank.