4. Orson Welles Was Almost Darth Vader
Though it is somewhat unthinkable to even consider another actor in the vocal role of Darth Vader other than the great James Earl Jones, there has to be an exception when it comes to Orson Welles, the celebrated actor and frequent voice over actor who lent his dulcet tones to Unicron in the Transformers movie. Welles was reportedly George Lucas' first choice to voice Vader, but the director changed his tune when he realised that Welles' voice was probably too well-known - which is not at all surprising, given that the Citizen Kane star had been voicing Findus frozen food commercials for some time - and went with the lesser known James Earl Jones. This would be the second time Welles was over-looked for a voice over part by George Lucas, whose studio wanted him for the voice of OMM in THX 1138 before the director instead chose unknown stage actor James Wheaton. Still, it might have been a smart move, given Welles' notorious capacity to criticise poorly written scripts...