10 Actors Who Quit Major Film Roles

It's fair to say Beverly Hills Cop would have been a totally different film had Mickey Rourke remained on in the lead role of Axel Foley, but whether it would have been anywhere near as good is highly debatable.

Rourke eventually quit the project after running out of patience with the pre-production and script revision process. Tired of waiting around, he left to pursue other opportunities.

It wasn't until his mooted replacement Sylvester Stallone bowed out over creative differences that Eddie Murphy was snapped up for the part of the motor-mouthed law enforcer, a role that was tailor-made for him, and the rest is history.

It seems Paramount didn't have a clear vision of who Axel Foley should be during the early stages of the project, since everyone from Richard Pryor to Al Pacino were also considered for the detective, but Murphy certainly made the part his own.