8 Famous Actors Who Were Almost In Doctor Who

6. Dennis Hopper

Doctor Who reached new levels of scale back in 2007 when it took on an otherworldly poseidon adventure (erm, OK... it was actually set in space - this is Doctor Who, after all!) which came extremely close to throwing the likes of James Cameron's Titanic out of the water. It was based on the Titanic, of course, which helped, but what's a stellar feature-length special without a stellar line up of glittering guest stars to boot? Russell T Davies was gunning for some pretty big names to light up the prestigious Voyage of the Damned festivities and, after securing pop sensation Kylie Minogue as the episode's leading co-star Astrid Peth, the next obvious step was to enlist the talents of a true industry icon who would ensure that this was one disaster fuelled escapade that fans would never forget. Only, it never actually happened. Damn. Award-winning filmmaker and counterculture icon (in other words, he was a Hollywood rebel!), Dennis Hopper came so close to playing the episode's villain, Max Capricorn, after initially being offered the part of Mr Copper. The role of the cyborg ultimately went to George Costigan, while Mr Copper was played by George Costigan, but booking Dennis would've been one of the show's most exceptional castings to date. He'll never get the chance to leave his mark on the Whoniverse, either, since he sadly passed away, aged 74, back in 2010. Russell T Davies certainly tried to get him on board, though, as the former showrunner has revealed that he personally phoned Dennis in attempt to reach some sort of arrangement. Unfortunately, his efforts were all in vein.