6. Sam Neill
Year Considered: 1986
Reason He Didn't Get The Role: Timothy Dalton Upstaged Him
Dun-dun... dun-dun... dun-da-dun... dun-dun-dun-dun! Yes, the
Jurassic Park theme, because we're talking about Sam Neill, and actors love it when you pigeon-hole their entire career into a single role. Dr. Alan Grant, the kid-loathing palaeontologist from Spielberg's seminal dinosaur movie, probably marks Neill's most famous character to date, but you might be shocked to learn that this man was so very nearly James Bond, and perhaps more so than any other actor on this list. He's likely haunted by this notion or something. Yep: had it not been for Timothy Dalton beating him to the punch, Neill probably would have been cast as the post-Roger Moore incarnation of James Bond, given that the producers like him so much and were on the verge of casting him (which would have given us two iconic themes to hum whenever we saw him). Anyway, a bunch of test footage was shot with Neill and everything, but eventually Dalton impressed everyone a little bit more, and Neill was forced out into the street into the rain and had to pay for his own cab home. Maybe.