10 Roles You Didn't Know Robin Williams Almost Played

8. Jonathan 'The Duke' Mardukas - Midnight Run

Another role that Williams lost to a less famous actor that the director preferred, Midnight Run would become a cult classic years after its release in cinemas in 1988, and is today justly regarded as the template for most buddy action movies. Williams really wanted the role, seeing the potential in starring opposite Robert De Niro in an action comedy by Martin Brest, the director of the hit Beverley Hills Cop. However, Brest had used the gifted comic actor Charles Grodin to assist De Niro in screen testing for the role, and had noticed that the two already had excellent chemistry together. Paramount dug their heels in, but Brest had developed the script and was adamant: he wanted Grodin. Paramount passed in the end, and Brest, Grodin and De Niro would proceed to make the movie with Universal instead, with fantastic results. Grodin and De Niro€™s partnership still stands the test of time today, and it€™s unclear whether Williams€™ manic streak could have been restrained sufficiently to do a similar job as the hangdog, deadpan Grodin. Fortunately, Williams would get to work with De Niro two years later in the heartwarming drama Awakenings, which would prove a critical hit, but not a commercial one.