20 Actors Who Almost Starred In Your Favorite Horror Movies

2. Christopher Lee - Dr. Samuel Loomis (Halloween)

It's no secret that John Carpenter's Halloween is one of the greatest horror films of all time. It's also no secret that the film barely got made. The cast and crew were working with an extremely tight budget. The low budget limited the number of big names that Carpenter could attract, and most of the actors received very little compensation for their roles. Though, one big name they were able to get was Donald Pleasence, who was paid the highest amount of everyone at $20,000. He, of course, played Dr. Loomis, a child psychologist, who was assigned to the case of a 6 year-old child, Michael Myers, who had murdered his sister on Halloween night. The role was originally offered to Count Dracula himself, Christopher Lee, who turned the role down because the pay was too low. By all accounts, it doesn't seem like this was a huge loss for Lee. He had five other roles in 1978, most notably Return From Witch Mountain. Though, at the very least, with Lee in the lead, there's no doubt that Loomis would have been a much more intimidating force.