10 Actors Who Turned Down Voicing Characters On The Simpsons
1. OJ Simpson
You've seen the headline. You're thinking to yourself, "Was OJ Simpson going to be a long-distant relative of The Simpsons?"
No, thankfully, although that would've made for quite a different trajectory.
As revealed in 2018 by showrunner Al Jean, the NFL running back-turned-actor was being eyed up for a potential appearance on The Simpsons in 1993. Jean wrote, via Twitter, on 11 March 2018 that it was ironic of Fox to air the 2006 OJ Simpson: The Last Confession special twenty-five years to the day that The Simpsons episode he was penned for - season four's classic Last Exit To Springfield - originally premiered.
.@TheSimpsons Ironically OJ simpson airs on fox 25 years to the day after the episode we asked him to be in (pre-murders) and he turned down— Al Jean (@AlJean) March 11, 2018
He was set to star as the Smartline panellist before Dr Joyce Brothers was selected upon Simpson turning the gig down. Understandably, OJ's rejection left The Simpsons team relieved once he was tried for the murder of his ex-wife and her friend in 1994. A civil court would issue a $33.5 million judgement against him in 1997 following a highly-publicised legal procedure.
Needless to say, OJ's acting career was all but finished by the mid-nineties. A planned 1994 pilot of Frogmen, where he played John 'Bullfrog' Burke, went unpublished due to the legal issues faced by Simpson.