Tom Hanks is one of the most accomplished actors on the planet, with two Best Actor Oscars to prove it. He’s also known as one of the nicest human beings in Hollywood. As you can imagine, Hanks’s services are in high demand, but even a benevolent soul like Hanks cannot say “yes” to every single project he is offered. So let’s take a look back at some of Hanks’s lost roles.
1. Get Crazy (1983)
It was very early in the actor’s movie career, yet director Allan Arkush knew that he wanted Tom Hanks as his lead Neil Allen. Instead, studio executive Herb Solow insisted on Daniel Stern. According to Arkush, Solow also nixed casting Mariska Hargitay and Jerry Orbach.
2. Police Academy (1984)
In 2005, Police Academy creator Paul Maslansky claimed that the filmmakers’s wish list for the role of Mahoney read, in no particular order: Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks, and Judge Reinhold. Steven Guttenberg ended up with the part.
3. When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
Director Rob Reiner talked to Hanks about playing Harry in When Harry Met Sally…, as well as Albert Brooks, Richard Dreyfuss, and Michael Keaton. Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal had immediate chemistry, and the rest is cinema (and delicatessen) history.
4. Super Mario Bros. (1993)
According to Jeff Ryan’s book Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America, Hanks was hired to play Mario before he was fired and replaced by Bob Hoskins, who was asking for less money anyway. Hanks won his first Best Actor Oscar for his role in 1993’s Philadelphia (the second one came a year later, for Forrest Gump), which came out the same year as Super Mario Bros.—a film that was universally panned and Hoskins later called his biggest disappointment in life.
5. Groundhog Day (1993)
Director Harold Ramis admitted in a 2009 Q&A that he initially wanted Hanks to play Phil Connors. Hanks later told Ramis he made the right choice in Bill Murray, saying, “Audiences would have been sitting there waiting for me to become nice, because I always play nice. But Bill’s such a miserable S.O.B. on- and offscreen, you didn’t know what was going to happen.”
6. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Hanks, Kevin Costner, and Tom Cruise passed on Andy Dufresne before Tim Robbins got the role of a lifetime.
7. When a Man Loves a Woman (1994)
Tom Hanks was originally set to play Michael Green, until the first director rewrote Al Franken and Ronald Bass’s darkly comedic script about codependency. After a couple of years, director Luis Mandoki came on board and fixed the script with Franken and Bass. Hanks had moved on by then, and Andy Garcia took the gig instead.
8. Speed (1994)
Screenwriter Graham Yost recalled that the studio went to Hanks and Cruise first, then Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, and others before Keanu Reeves’ name was ever brought up to potentially play Jack.
9. Nixon (1995)
Hanks had been set to play the 37th President of the United States in The Passion of Richard Nixon, a project that never saw the light of day. Knowing this, Oliver Stone approached Hanks about playing Nixon in his Tricky Dick movie instead. Anthony Hopkins signed on after Hanks turned Stone down.
10. Jerry Maguire (1996)
Cameron Crowe wrote the movie with Hanks in mind as the protagonist. Hanks was busy directing his movie That Thing You Do!. He later told Crowe the movie was perfect with Cruise as the lead.
11. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Hanks also missed out on playing Zefram Cochrane as a result of being too busy working on That Thing You Do!. This pass might have hurt more, since Hanks is a huge Star Trek fan, and had already expressed regret two years earlier that he didn’t have time appear in a Star Trek: Next Generation episode or Star Trek movie.
12. Primary Colors (1998)
Hanks initially agreed to play the lead in the Mike Nichols-directed adaptation of the book known to be about Bill Clinton’s first successful presidential campaign, until he realized he was too busy. The media alleged Hanks backed out because of his friendship with Clinton, and had to deny that was the case. In fact, Hanks claimed Clinton told him he had his blessing to take the role. John Travolta got the honor instead.
13. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
Woody Allen alleged that both Hanks and Jack Nicholson turned down the lead in The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, possibly because they weren’t offered enough money.
14. Kinsey (2004)
According to E! Online columnist Anderson Jones, Hanks was among a group of A-list actors who “flirted” with the part of Kinsey. Liam Neeson ended up playing the controversial sexologist.
15. Shopgirl (2005)
Steve Martin approached Hanks to play Ray. Hanks was too busy, so Martin took the role he had written himself.
16. Dino
Martin Scorsese co-wrote the screenplay and was set to direct a Dean Martin biopic, with Hanks playing the singer/comedian. Scorsese had planned to make it after Gangs of New York, but it never got made.
This story has been updated for 2020.
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Tom Petty’s Favorite (and Least Favorite) Tom Petty Songs
The legend’s top pick from his catalog was not one of his biggest hits.
ByLogan DeLoye|Oct 18, 2026, 2:00 PM EDT
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Tom Petty met Elvis Presley when he was just 10 years old, got his first guitar two years later, and the rest is (music) history.
His songwriting was so prolific that millions of listeners found themselves free fallin’, wandering through wildflowers, and dancing with Mary Jane across his catalog. Generations of fans admire the rock ‘n’ roll icon for his talent, collaborative spirit, and his undeniably chill approach to stardom.
Petty rose to fame in 1976 with his debut album, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Throughout his career, he gifted the world 16 studio albums, 13 with his band and three solo projects. His 1981 collaboration with Stevie Nicks landed them near the top of the Billboard charts with “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” four years after his first top 10 hit, “Don’t Do Me Like That.” “Free Fallin’” was the band’s last top 10 hit in 1989.
In the late 1980s, Petty joined the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys alongside Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison, penning classics like “Handle With Care,” “End of the Line,” “Last Night,” and “Congratulations.”
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 and passed away in 2017 at 66.
The world loves his music, but what were Tom Petty’s favorite (and least favorite) Tom Petty tracks?
“Southern Accents”
In 2002, Petty spoke with the Los Angeles Times about his catalog and named “Southern Accents,” the title track from his 1985 album, as his favorite, citing its connection to his southern roots.
“That may be my favorite among my songs, just in terms of a piece of pure writing. I remember writing it very vividly. It was in the middle of the night, and I was playing it on the piano at home in Encino. I was just singing into my cassette recorder, and suddenly these words came out. I was at the point in my career where I was very much trying to find some new ground. I thought I had used up what I had started with, and I wanted a new direction.”
He also explained how the song tied into his childhood and family life.
“We had lived in California for about 10 years at that point, and I started thinking about growing up in northern Florida, which is a lot different from Miami Beach. It’s close to Georgia, and I came from a real Southern family, and I wanted to address that world. Once I came up with this song, I decided to write an entire album about the theme.”
“Make It Better (Forget About Me)”
Before his passing, Petty sat down with author Paul Zollo for a series of in-depth conversations published in Conversations With Tom Petty in 2020. In one of those chats, Petty was very honest about a song he “hated,” calling it “trash.”
“I hate that song; it’s just trash,” he said, referring to “Make It Better (Forget About Me).” “It was Dave just trying to get me to knock a song out—just write a song for the sake of writing one—and I think that’s what it sounds like to me.”
The track, written in the ‘80s and featured on Southern Accents, only reached number 54 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Read More:
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8 Hit Songs You Might Not Know Tom Petty Wrote
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11 Wild Urban Legends Surrounding Popular Songs
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Quiz: Which ‘Little House on the Prairie’ Character Are You?
Find out which pioneer best matches your personality with this eight-question quiz!
ByNitya Rao|Jul 18, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT
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Before we had the “tradwife” trend, we had Little House on the Prairie, where living off the land was the norm rather than the niche lifestyle it is today. The sweeping plains of Independence, Kansas, from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s original novel to the 2026 Netflix adaptation, remain the same. Yet, somehow, the world was an entirely different place. It was a world where survival required just as much pluck as it did positivity.
In the series premiere, Pa tells Laura that “hope is everything,” a profound sentiment she eventually echoes back to him by the season finale. And while the unpredictability of life on the prairie probably calls for a prayer or two, Ma reminds us that it isn’t always a bad thing. In Episode 4, she insists that “an uncertain life is full of possibilities.”
Maybe you relate to Ma’s realism, or perhaps you’re more like Pa, rose-colored glasses and all. Then there are the Lauras of the world who would rather be traipsing through the tallgrass than thinking about the perplexities of pioneering. Dr. George Tann’s charisma, Mary’s perfectionism, and John Edwards’ mysteriousness fill in the blanks. We may have evolved from bonnets to baseball caps, but each of us has an inner pioneer personality that persists.
Are you ready to find your place within the covered wagon? Take this quiz to discover which Little House on the Prairie character captures your true colors.
Which pioneer mirrors your personality the most? Each and every member of the community is resilient, passionate, and inspiring in their own way. Share this personality quiz with your family and friends to find out if you’re the same Little House on the Prairie character, or if you have the perfect balance of traits to brave the frontier together!