10 Characters Recast In The Middle Of Shooting

3. Keenan Wynn - Superman: The Movie

wynn] Go watch Keenan Wynn in any of the Disney movies he did in the '70s -- Herbie Rides Again, The Shaggy D.A. -- and try to tell me he wouldn't have made a great Perry White. Apparently Richard Donner, the director of Superman: The Movie, agreed. Perry White was essentially J. Jonah Jameson on screen before Jameson got there, a loud, blustery newspaper editor with an eye for sensationalism but a heart that nonetheless has its softer edges; Wynn, with his brash delivery and blustery personality, would've been perfect in the part. Unfortunately, he had a heart attack stepping off the plane in England to begin shooting Superman in 1977. Richard Donner had to quickly recast the part, and fell back on an old buddy, former child actor Jackie Cooper. Cooper was literally flown out the day before he was supposed to start shooting -- Donner remembers, during their initial telephone conversation, asking Cooper if he had a passport handy, because they needed him there now -- and ended up being darn near iconic in the role himself.
Contributor

C.B. Jacobson pops up at What Culture every once in a while, and almost without fail manages to embarrass the site with his clumsy writing. When he's not here, he's making movies, or writing about them at http://buddypuddle.blogspot.com.