Actors who were almost chosen as Jean-Luc Picard of Star Trek before Patrick Stewart

In A 2020 interview with The Hollywood ReporterActor Patrick Stewart recalled the frustrations he found While working with Gene RoddenberryThe creator of “Star Trek: the next generation”. Roddenberry notoriously did not want Stewart to play Captain Jen-Luc Picard, hating the fact that she was bald and not so interested in the fact that she is English. When Roddenberry visited the “Star Trek” set, Stewart remembers having been treated coldly, and received little real direction from man. Stewart sought to talk about Captain Picard with Roddenberry during a lunch, but that was not a very useful meeting; Roddenberry simply advised Stewart to read CS Forster’s Horatio Horatio Hornblower. As the creator of the series said: “Everything is there.” It is not terribly useful.

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Stewart’s Roddenberry disgust, however, was not shared by the general public. Captain Picard became a favorite character of fans quite quickly, with Trekkies responding to Stewart’s dominant performance and Picard’s innate intelligence and the propensity to diplomacy. It was not long before Trekkies argued that Picard was perhaps a better captain than Captain Kirk (William Shatner) of the original “Star Trek”.

But if Roddenberry and other casting directors came out with his, someone else would have been chosen as Jean-Luc Picard. In fact, on April 13, 1987, Paramount’s producer John Ferraro was the author of a memorandum to the president of Paramount TV, John Pike, listing his list of finalists for all the main roles “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. THE MEMO (Easily published by SCI-FI SLITI in 2006) I had some fun surprises. For example, it seems that Wesley Snipes was under consideration for Geordi la Forge.

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While Patrick Stewart was the best Ferraro option for Picard, they were also Mitch Ryan, Roy Tinnes, Patrick Bauchau and, most exciting, Yaphet Kotto.

In 1987, Roy Thinnes could have been better known to science fiction fans for starring in the Larry Cohen series “The Invaders” as David Vincent, who discovers an alien conspiracy on Earth. The general public probably met him for his prolific turn in 45 episodes of “General Hospital”. He was also praised for his role in “The Long Hot Summer”, and appeared in films such as “Airport 1975” and “The Hindenburg.” I had a small role in “A Beautiful Mind” by Ron Howard and even appeared Three episodes of “The X-Files” (seen above). Thinnes was a rather reliable television presence, and was authoritarian and professional, so one can understand by Paramount would want it.

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Also in consideration for Picard was Mitchell Ryan, the recognizable characters who played Greg’s father, Edward, in the successful situation comedy “Dharma & Greg”. He was also in 107 episodes of “Dark Shadows”, playing Burke Devlin in the 1960s. Ryan was one of the televisions and cinema “Hello, it’s that guy!” Actors, accumulating dozens and dozens of film and television credits in their career, including “liar liar” with Jim Carrey. Ryan, compared to Stewart, was stronger and more masculine, bringing a windy advantage … Well, Kirk’s energy to his roles. However, Ryan was too prolific to let him pass, and eventually it would be dragged into the fold “Star Trek”, playing Will Riker’s father (Jonathan Frakes) in the “next generation” episode the Icarus factor “(April 24, 1989).

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Ryan and Thinnes are American actors, while Jean-Luc Picard is French. They were not considered French actors for the role, although the memorandum mentions the Belgian actor Patrick Bauchau. Bauchau was an actor of the new French wave, and even participated in films of the new German wave, both throughout the 1960s and in 1970. He worked with Éric Rohmer and Wim Wenders. In the United States, it can be better known for its role in the James Bond movie “A View to a Kill.” It would have brought a European sophistication element to paper.

Also on the list of Picard was Yaphet Kotto, star of “Alien”, “through 110 street”, “The running man”, James Bond’s movie “Live and Let Die” (seen above), and many, many others. Kotto also played one of the main papers in the long series of police “Homicide: Life on the Street”. At the beginning of his career, Kotto appeared in 10 episodes of “Bonanza”, 15 episodes of “Death Valley Days” and 16 episodes of “Gunsmoke”. His career was vast and broad. The world lost a huge talent When he died in 2021.

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Kotto, as can be seen in his cinematographic credits, was no stranger to science fiction. In “Alien”, he lived in a space container and fought with a space creature, while “The Running Man” gave him the opportunity to work in a futuristic dystopia.

In 2015, Kotto spoke with Bigg’s problemand asked about his damn friction with “Star Trek.” Kotto remembers his rejection well and expresses a small amount of regret for the matter. He explained:

“I think I made some wrong decisions in my life, man. I should have done that, but I moved away. When you are making movies, you would tend to say no to television. It’s like when you’re in college and someone asks you to dance high school. You say no.”

For many decades, television was seen as a “minor” medium than television, and film actors tended to stay away from doing television programs. This was true even until 1987, and Kotto did not want to abandon any potential film role to commit to a season of 26 episodes of “Star Trek”. Kotto is also very, very American, so it is not clear if he had affected a French accent to play Jean-Luc Picard. At least, the appropriate authority would have had.

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But in the end, I think we can all agree that Captain Picard was given the public ended up being the best.