Audie L. Murphy Memorial Website Message Boards

If you could have cast Audie in a movie in which he didn't appear, what would it have been? I personally think he would have been great in Shane. It was the kind of character he could have played very well.

Would like to hear some of your ideas.

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Betty

I SAY HE SOULD HAVE HAD THE YUL BRYNNER PART IN THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN!

Richard Widmark's role in Two Rode Together. He and Jimmy Stewart worked nicely together..

Ann

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"He endured the shame of being sent home a living trophy to the blood and death of too many friends"
A Myth in Action: The Heroic Life of Audie Murphy
http://www.annjoiner.com

THO STEVE MCQUWWN DID A GREAT JOB IN NEVADA SMITH, AUDIE WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME!

MCQUEEN. DON'T KNOW HOW ALL THEM WW'S GOT IN THERE.

The Van Heflin role in 3:10 to Yuma. Mostly because I find Heflin kind of annoying and I think Ford and Murphy would have played well off each other. Although the second half might turn into "is the farmer going to KILL the outlaw?" instead of "is the farmer going to yield to the outlaw's temptations?"

The Craig Stevens role in Buchanan Rides Alone. It's kind of a more sympathetic version of John Gant from No Name on the Bullet, and it would've allowed him to work with Budd Boetticher again.

The Charles Bronson role in Once Upon a Time in the West. It's the most bog-standard vengeful anti-hero role you can imagine, and just about any actor who could handle a horse, a gun, and a harmonica could have pulled it off. But it would've brought Murphy money and a way to stay busy at a time when he needed them, and it would have been fun seeing him framed in those endless closeup shots Sergio Leone liked so much.

I also think he would have been cool in 55 Days at Peking, but given Charlton Heston's horrific accounts of the filming, and the breakdowns Ava Gardner and the director suffered, I don't think I could wish that experience on someone who already had PTSD.

Hi All,
If we can fantasize here for a moment, I think if "Electric Horseman" could have been filmed
earlier than it was, say catching Audie in his late thirties, early forties, He would have been
great in that movie. Just as good as or even better than Robert Redford. And it would have been
so believable because of Audie's love for horses. I could honestly see Audie pulling a stunt like
that in real life to save that thorough bred from chemical abuse and the spirit of setting that horse
free in the wilds. Also, Audie was quite popular and well known around Las Vegas, and I think the
chemistry between him and Jane Fonda might have been pretty good. However the down side to it,
knowing Audie's feelings for our American Serviceman and also, his outspokeness regarding the
Vietnam war, I often wonder in real life what his opinion of Jane Fonda might have been and her
little public display with the North Vietnamese way back when, might not have made for some
cozy comfortable times on the set. I suspect he might have even refused to do the picture with her.
The fact that John Saxon plays the villan here and he had previously acted with Saxon would have
been a plus for Murphy. Also, the Willie Nelson music in that movie is sooo great and knowing that
Willie was a big fan of Murphy's even to the point of having his own museum show a lot of Murphy
Memorabilia in Nashville leads me to think he and Murphy would have gotten along like two peas in
a pod on that movie. But I can really see Murphy in the Redford role. Just my daydreamings.
Shirley Jean.

Too bad we weren't Audie's agents. We could have really picked some great movies for him to star in. I think he could have acted in anything they gave him if they had only have given him a chance.

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Betty

Betty, As Teri so aptly put... AMEN SISTER TATE TO THAT !!!!!! Shirley Jean.

Second Post, I ALSO think Audie would have been great in Jermiah Johnson....
Just my thoughts.... Shirley Jean.

I agree with Betty, I think he would have been great in "Shane." He and Allen Ladd were both very quiet, low key individuals, and both spoke very softly, and both carried a big stick(Ladd in the movies at least, and Audie both in life and the movies).

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"You lead from the front." Audie Murphy, WWII's Most Decorated Soldier

He didn't live long enough to participate in the wave of vigilante/rogue cop movies that cropped up in the seventies, but I think he would have done well in those. And even if the Hollywood people working in that subgenre were stupid enough to offer him Scorpio instead of Harry Callahan, I'm sure the Italians would've considered giving him a chance.

Damn right David. I would not have thought of that one, but that would have been the perfect role, and would have vaulted him into lasting acclaim as an actor.

Dave

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"I believe in all the men who stood up against the enemy, taking their beatings without whimper and their triumphs without boasting. The men who went and would go again to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks right and decent."

Shirleyjean said something in the Jean Harlow thread, that gave me this weird mental image of Murphy playing the Bogart role from Sabrina. You'd have to shuffle the backstory a bit: Linus Larabee as surprisingly responsible younger half-brother instead of much older full-brother; the family matriarch as a former Southern belle type, David's stepmother, Linus's birth mother, and the patriarch's second wife. But otherwise I think he would have done about as good a job as the stoic, sometimes sarcastic loner who warms up to Sabrina while he's trying to distract her from his brother as Bogey does.

Besides, he looked good in a suit and he didn't spend nearly enough time wearing them onscreen for my taste, what with all those westerns.

Christie,I could see him in either role of that film.

Just curious, did you see the Christian Bale/ Russell Crowe version? If so, what did you think of the ending?

Murphy and Crowe, just generally as actors, I think, have some acting styles in common - their ability to portray their emotions with their eyes for one. And they are both misconstrued as Hollywood Bad Boys, since they both refused to kow-tow to the media.

Ann

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"He endured the shame of being sent home a living trophy to the blood and death of too many friends"
A Myth in Action: The Heroic Life of Audie Murphy
http://www.annjoiner.com