10 First Choices For Big Movie Roles (That Would Have Totally Sucked)

Tom Hanks scored the second of his two successive Best Actor Oscars for portraying the titular man with a knack for getting involved in major historical events. It arrived at a time in the 1990s when Hanks was completing his pivot from reliable comic actor to dramatic leading man, while another man's career was struggling. That man was John Travolta, who would turn down the role of Forrest, making Pulp Fiction instead.

The two films were pitted in a straight face-off at the 1995 Academy Awards, with both Hanks and Travolta nominated. Gump would go on to win six awards - including Best Picture and Best Director - from 13 nominations, while Quentin Tarantino's crime opus managed just one prize (Best Original Screenplay) from seven noms. Travolta has since admitted that he regrets turning down Forrest Gump but, given the boost Pulp Fiction gave to his career, he's probably not too upset.

Tom Hanks is arguably the greatest actor of his generation and it's the sensitivity he brings to the title role in Forrest Gump that saves it from its own syrupy writing. Travolta, as an avatar of 1970s cool, doesn't have the same dimension to his acting, so his Gump could well have been a disaster.