10 Famous Movies That Would Have Been Better Off With Their First Choice Actors

4. Christopher Lee As Dr. No - Dr. No

Doctor No is an anomaly in the Bond saga. It's more of a straight thriller than the others, and they really hadn't come up with the idea of marking villains with strange defects yet, which is why Doctor No is a pretty unremarkable bad guy when compared to the rest. Can anyone even name the actor who played him? Joseph Wiseman, that's who. But if Ian Fleming (the author of the novels) had gotten his way, things could have turned out a whole lot differently with this casting choice. Fleming wanted Christopher Lee, his cousin, to play the role. By this time in 1962, Lee was best known for his Hammer horror films and as a character actor on television. Ian Fleming recommended him for the role to the producers, Albert 'Cubby' Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, who by that time had already cast Joseph Wiseman as the lead villain. Again, Wiseman is actually pretty brilliant as the villain, but he's not really the scheming and vengeful villain we get in the books - and he doesn't even look like the right ethnicity. Lee would've got the vengeance element as well as the villainous lines perfect, but it wasn't meant to be. Luckily for everyone, Christopher Lee did get to play a much more memorable villainous role in the guise of Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun, around 11 years later.