7 Actors Who Rejected Movies For Being Too Evil (And Regretted It)

Tough though it is to picture anyone but Clint Eastwood playing the role of Dirty Harry's Harry Callahan, he was far from the studio's first choice.

Among the first names they considered was John Wayne, who given his standing in Hollywood as an outspoken conservative Republican, seemed like a perfect fit to play the titular "good guy with a gun."

Yet Wayne ended up not playing the part, and there have been numerous explanations for why over the years - one being that, at 63 years of age, he was deemed too old, and another being that he didn't appreciate being offered the role after Frank Sinatra turned it down.

By far the most interesting one, though, is that Wayne wasn't much a fan of Callahan's presentation as a "loose cannon," which in addition to him being fed up with playing law-breaking rogues, allegedly prompted him to turn it down.

But Wayne later admitted he was totally wrong about Dirty Harry, saying, "I made a mistake with that one."

While it's easy to appreciate why Wayne was considered, Clint Eastwood is Dirty Harry, and with Wayne being over 20 years older than Eastwood, it's unlikely he would've brought quite the same grizzled intensity to the part.