- John Travolta turning down the starring role in An Officer & a Gentleman, Midnight Express, Forrest Gump and Chicago.
- Jack Nicholson turning down the starring role in 1978's Coming Home to do Goin' South
. He could have won another Oscar - and tied Katharine Hepburn at four statues a piece - had he done Coming Home. Nicholson also turned down the starring role in both Apocalypse Now & Rain Man. He's still a bad muthafukka, though.
- Marlon Brando turning down the starring role in The Conversation. The '70s could have been another classic decade for Brando, but he was just so damn lazy after his classic 1972 year. All he wanted to do was eat, fukk those Asian/Tahitian chicks he was infactuated with, and make as much money as he could while doing as little work as possible(See: Superman).
- Elvis Presley turning down the starring role in West Side Story(Killed any chance he had at being a serious actor).
- Nicole Kidman turning down the leading actress role in Chicago. She also refused to do a screen test for the part of Jenny in Forrest Gump.
- Diana Ross screwing up her role in The Bodyguard in 1979, due to her bytchy, diva-like antics during rehearsals. Producers eventually shut the production down, and thus ended Diana's career as a big screen actress. Whitney Houston would play the same role some 13 years later and the rest is history.
- Eddie Murphy turning down Ghostbusters to do Best Defense. He later said the money they offered him to do Best Defense was too good to pass up at the time. Understandable.
He also turned down Rush Hour to do Holy Man,
Chris Tucker later got the part in Rush Hour. Inexcusable.
- Alyssa Milano turning down the leading actress role in Speed. She was never able to get her career going in movies.
- Molly Ringwald turned down the leading role in Pretty Woman. I have no idea if the film would've been successful with her, but who knows?