10 Actors Who Quit Major Film Roles
4. Frank Sinatra (Dirty Harry)
After memorable roles in films like The Man With The Golden Arm and The Manchurian Candidate, Frank Sinatra's movie career began to peter out by the 1970s, but things might have been different if he hadn't broken his wrist while shooting the latter movie.
The crooner-turned-actor was cast in the title role of 1971 vigilante cop thriller Dirty Harry, but he struggled to wield the anti-hero's beefy magnum because of the injury he picked up on the set of Manchurian Candidate.
The part of Harry Callahan ultimately went to Clint Eastwood, who has played the character in four sequels, and it went on to define his post-Western career.
Dirty Harry passed him by, but Sinatra did land the lead role in comedy-Western Dirty Dingus Magee, a film that was panned by critics and ignored by cinemagoers. Who knows what might have been had he not injured his wrist?