The Road Not Taken

Dirty Harry as the Man of Steel? It could have happened!

In the early 1970s fresh off of his success with "Dirty Harry," [Clint] Eastwood was approached by the president of Warner Bros. Frank Wells to play the Man of Steel. "I was like, 'Superman? Nah, nah, that's not for me.' Not that there's anything wrong with it. It's for somebody, but not me."

Unlike today, where every third flick seems to have been culled from the pages of comic books, superhero movies were then seen as box-office poison. Eastwood was concerned of being typecast as a caped crime fighter. "I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality," he said.

When "Superman" did eventually hit the silver screen in 1978, starring a then unknown Christopher Reeve, Eastwood found himself starring opposite a smart aleck orangutan in "Every Which Way but Loose."

Okay, I confess he would be all wrong for the part, but I've got this vision in my head of his saying to Gene Hackman's Lex Luthor, "Go ahead....Make my day!"

Apparently, Clint also was considered to play 007 after Connery bowed out. Again, all wrong. But still......