10 Roles Written For Actors That Didn't Play Them

After creator and producer Lorne Michaels and much of the original players of Saturday Night Live left, or died, in 1980, he put the show in the trusted hands of producer Jean Doumanian. It was a bold move in the early 80s - such a position of power for a woman was largely unheard of then.

Unfortunately, early 80s SNL one of the show's low-points. When the new cast was introduced, each member did so by jokingly explaining how they weren't just pale replacements, which is mostly what they turned out to be.

To Doumanian's credit, however, she gave us Eddie Murphy. Murphy didn't last on SNL long, shooting to superstardom with the buddy cop hit 48 Hrs. Two years later, he landed what is probably his most famous role as Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop.

But prior to being the classic action-comedy that it was, the script was much more serious before Murphy's involvement. Following the same plot, they wanted Stallone, who brought in his own ideas including a finale he described as epic as the beaches of Normandy invasion in Saving Private Ryan.

The studio deemed his changes too expensive and replaced Stallone with Murphy and a lot of rewrites.

Stallone took his character - renamed Axel Cobretti at the time - and some ideas and incorporated them into what turned into Cobra.