MovieChat Forums > The 300 Spartans Discussion > needed a lead with a big name

needed a lead with a big name


richard egan?

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He was a reasonably big name then, if not an A-lister. But he was more than B-list.

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Yeah, there seemed to be a while when he turned up as the lead in some major films - or at least ones that were frequently on TV when I was a kid.

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Yes, the mid-1950s to the early/mid-1960s was his heyday. I was a kid in the 1960s & saw him in a lot of those movies on TV myself. :)

He was very good as the male lead in Disney's Pollyanna. And in 1963 he starred in the short-lived Western series Redigo. A solid performer, always dependable, and capable of more range than he was usually given credit for, I think.

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He was somewhat recognizable at the time but yeah, not an A-list box office draw. It'd be like casting Taylor Kitsch in not one but two summer blockbusters that cost over $200M. Good thing that never happened.

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Sam Worthington of the 60s?

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sort of.

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Egan isn't much remembered today, but he was a pretty big name in the 1950s and early 1960s.

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