10 Times Recasting Iconic Characters Actually Worked

9. George McFly

The Original: Crispin Glover The Recast: Jeffrey Weissman Here's a character even the original actor thought would be impossible to recast, to a rather shocking result. Although everybody remembers Marty McFly and Doc Brown from Back To The Future, in the mind of Crispin Glover, who played Marty's father, George McFly, in both 1955 and 1985 form, he was the real star. When a sequel to the time-travel comedy was floated Glover not only demanded that his salary was increased to the same level as Michael J. Fox's, but also that he got approval on the script. Robert Zemekis wasn't ready to give all that up, called Glover's bluff and ended up not bringing the actor onto the project. George was instead played by a heavily make-upped Jeffrey Weissman, with a role in the story much smaller than originally intended. And, to be fair, it just about works; George doesn't have to play a big part in the film (his death in the alternate 1985 packs a real punch) and Weissman looks enough like Glover for it to not be obvious. Glover, however, wasn't impressed and sued Universal for using his likeness, a case that was settled out of court.