When Bruce Willis was cast to play John McClane in 1988’s Die Hard, he was known only for his starring role in the TV dramedy Moonlighting. So, he was a strange choice for the gallant hero of an action movie. But then, McClane isn’t your typical action hero.
What makes him such a great character is that he’s just a regular guy. He’s having marital problems and he’s estranged from his kids and he cuts his feet on shards of broken glass. Willis brought a universal relatability to McClane, but he wasn’t the producers’ first choice for the role. So, here are 10 actors besides Willis who were considered for the role of John McClane in Die Hard.
Frank Sinatra
Die Hard was loosely adapted from the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, which was written as a sequel to the novel The Detective. The Detective was previously adapted into a movie starring Frank Sinatra. The movie was initially developed as a straight sequel to the movie, and Sinatra was offered the chance to reprise his role as Joe Leland.
When Sinatra rejected the offer, the movie was retooled to be its own thing, separate from The Detective. The lead character was made younger and the search for John McClane began.
Clint Eastwood
Your typical Clint Eastwood character – Harry Callahan, William Munny, Walt Kowalski, the Man with No Name etc. – is a lot more grizzled and cynical than John McClane.
So, it’s surprising that Eastwood was once considered for the role of McClane. This might’ve been back when the script was a lot darker.
Mel Gibson
Action classics Die Hard and Lethal Weapon went into development at around the same time. The lead role in the latter, Martin Riggs, was originally offered to Bruce Willis, who turned it down.
Similarly, the role of McClane was originally offered to Mel Gibson (who went on to play Riggs, just as Willis went on to play McClane), but he turned it down. Willis and Gibson rejecting these offers paved the way for them each to take the other role.
Burt Reynolds
From Smokey and the Bandit to The Cannonball Run to Sharky’s Machine, Burt Reynolds has starred in some of the most unabashedly fun action movies ever made.
So, it should come as no surprise that he was under consideration for the role of John McClane when Die Hard was in development.
Sylvester Stallone
As with pretty much every action movie in the ‘80s, the lead role in Die Hard was offered to Sylvester Stallone. At the time, Stallone was on top of the world as one of the most recognizable stars in action cinema, so he could make pretty much any movie he wanted.
By the late ‘80s, Stallone was already in the midst of both the Rocky and Rambo franchises. If he’d taken the role of McClane and starred in five Die Hard movies, he could’ve been accused of being a franchise hog.
Al Pacino
Al Pacino was considered for the role of John McClane. Pacino has played cops in all kinds of movies, ranging from Serpico to Cruising to Heat (although, at the time, he was still yet to make Heat).
While he hasn’t done many high-profile action-oriented roles, Pacino has played a flustered, flawed man struggling under intense pressure while confined to a single building in Dog Day Afternoon.
Kurt Russell
The producers of Die Hard considered casting Kurt Russell as John McClane. Bruce Willis is undeniably perfect for the role of McClane, but it would’ve been interesting to see what Russell would do with the part.
Russell’s take on McClane probably would’ve been somewhere between the cool-as-ice badassery of Snake Plissken and the comic relief of Jack Burton, which could’ve been a lot of fun.
Harrison Ford
On top of Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Rick Deckard, and Jack Ryan, Harrison Ford could’ve played another top-tier action movie protagonist.
After Frank Sinatra turned down Die Hard and the producers scrambled for a replacement McClane, Ford was one of the biggest names under consideration.
Robert De Niro
Having won an Oscar for The Godfather Part II and collaborated with Scorsese on Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Raging Bull, Robert De Niro could’ve brought a harrowing humanity to delivering one-liners as a sweat-drenched cop in an air vent in Die Hard.
When the producers were searching for the perfect McClane, the man behind Travis Bickle and Jake LaMotta was one of the actors they looked at. In 1988, when Die Hard came out, De Niro starred in a different masterpiece of action cinema: the great Midnight Run.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
In the original script for Die Hard, McClane was written as some kind of unstoppable super cop who could spring into action at a moment’s notice. When this was the case, the producers’ top choice for the role, unsurprisingly, was Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he turned down the part.
Director John McTiernan wanted to make McClane more of a flawed, average guy anyway, correctly assuming that he’d be more appealing to audiences that way. When Bruce Willis was cast, the character was rewritten to suit his performance style.
