16. Tom Hanks - Andy Dufrasne (The Shawshank Redemption)
As fate would have it, two life-changing roles fell on the lap of actor Tom Hanks simultaneously. Hanks was first choice for the role of Andy Dufrasne in the 1994 classic The Shawshank Redemption, a film often considered to be the best of the 90s and one of the best of all time. Despite being keen to do the movie, he turned the film down because he was too commited to Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump, therefore he regrettably had to decline. (He of course went on to win an Oscar for his performance in Forrest Gump, a film which also won Best Picture, beating Shawshank to the major awards that year.) If there was any criticism at all level at The Shawshank Redemption, it was categorically aimed at the labored performance of Tim Robbins in the lead role. Robbins was condemned for not creating a connection between the audience and Andy, quite the opposite of what Morgan Freeman was able to do with the second lead character of Red. It is undoubtable that this criticism would not have been present in the reviews under Tom Hanks' depiction of Andy Dufrasne. Hanks' demeanor of playing quiet intelligence and serenity you'd imagine would have been perfect for the role of Andy Dufrasne, and one things for sure, if Hanks had elected to appear in Shawshank ahead of Oscar rival Forrest Gump, the whole Oscar race of 1994 would have been completely turned on its head and it would have been Shawshank which won the plaudits over Gump.