12 Actors You Didn't Know Were Almost Cast In Star Trek
4. Eriq La Salle
You probably remember Eriq La Salle, aka Dr. Peter Benton as the passionate and talented surgeon featured on several seasons of ER. Or maybe as the Darryl, the heir to the Soul Glo fortunes in Coming To America.
By the way, Coming To America was the first film in which Eddie Murphy played multiple characters. This later became a trademark of his, and eventually led the Eddie Murphy bonanza that is Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. Not sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing, but it's certainly worth knowing for your next trivia night!
It seems that well before ER, Star Trek producers were very interested in La Salle for several roles.
The first was that of Geordi La Forge on The Next Generation. And then later he was considered for both the Benjamin Sisko role, and Julian Bashir on Deep Space Nine.