Actors Who Were Almost Cast As Star Trek’s Jean-Luc Picard Before Patrick Stewart

In a 2020 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, actor Patrick Stewart recalled the frustrations he encountered while working with Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Roddenberry notoriously didn’t want Stewart to play Captain Jen-Luc Picard, hating the fact that he was bald and not so keen on the fact that he’s English. When Roddenberry visited the “Star Trek” set, Stewart recalls being treated with coldness, and he received little actual direction from the man. Stewart sought to discuss Captain Picard with Roddenberry over a lunch, but that wasn’t a very helpful meeting; Roddenberry merely advised Stewart to read C.S. Forster’s Horatio Hornblower novels. As the series creator said, “It’s all in there.” Not terribly helpful. 

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Roddenberry’s distaste of Stewart, however, was not shared by the general public. Captain Picard became a fan favorite character quite swiftly, with Trekkies responding to Stewart’s commanding performance and to Picard’s innate intelligence and propensity for diplomacy. It didn’t take long before Trekkies were arguing that Picard was perhaps a better captain than Captain Kirk (William Shatner) from the original “Star Trek.” 

But if Roddenberry and other casting directors had their way, someone else would have been cast as Jean-Luc Picard. Indeed, on April 13, 1987, Paramount producer John Ferraro authored a memo to Paramount TV president John Pike listing their wish-list of finalists for all of the major “Star Trek: The Next Generation” roles. The memo (handily published by Slice of Sci-Fi back in 2006) had a few fun surprises. For example, it seems Wesley Snipes was under consideration for Geordi La Forge. 

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While Patrick Stewart was Ferraro’s top choice for Picard, also under consideration were Mitch Ryan, Roy Thinnes, Patrick Bauchau, and, most excitingly, Yaphet Kotto. 

In 1987, Roy Thinnes might have been best known to sci-fi fans for starring in the Larry Cohen series “The Invaders” as David Vincent who uncovers an alien conspiracy on Earth. General audiences likely knew him for his prolific turn in 45 episodes of “General Hospital.” He was also praised for his role on “The Long Hot Summer,” and appeared in films like “Airport 1975” and “The Hindenburg.” He had a small role in Ron Howard’s “A Beautiful Mind” and even turned up on three episodes of “The X-Files” (seen above). Thinnes was a pretty reliable TV presence, and he was authoritative and professional, so one can understand by Paramount would want him.

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Also under consideration for Picard was Mitchell Ryan, the recognizable character actor who played Greg’s father Edward on the hit sitcom “Dharma & Greg.” He was also in 107 episodes of “Dark Shadows,” playing Burke Devlin back in the 1960s. Ryan was one of TV’s and film’s preeminent “Hey, it’s that guy!” actors, racking up dozens and dozens of film and TV credits in his career, including “Liar Liar” with Jim Carrey. Ryan, when compared to Stewart, was louder and more masculine, bringing a blustery … well, Kirk-like energy to his roles. Ryan was too prolific to pass up, however, and he would eventually be pulled into the “Star Trek” fold, playing the father of Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes) in the “Next Generation” episode “The Icarus Factor” (April 24, 1989). 

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Ryan and Thinnes are American actors, while Jean-Luc Picard is French. No French actors were under consideration for the role, although the memo mentions Belgian actor Patrick Bauchau. Bauchau was an actor of the French New Wave, and even participated in films of the German New Wave, both throughout the 1960s and 1970. He worked with Éric Rohmer and Wim Wenders. In America, he may be best known for his role in the James Bond film “A View to a Kill.” He would have brought an element of European sophistication to the role.

Also on the Picard list was Yaphet Kotto, star of “Alien,” “Across 110th Street,” “The Running Man,” the James Bond film “Live and Let Die” (seen above), and many, many others. Kotto also played one of the lead roles in the long-running cop series “Homicide: Life on the Street.” Early in his career, Kotto appeared on 10 episodes of “Bonanza,” 15 episodes of “Death Valley Days,” and 16 episodes of “Gunsmoke.” His career was vast and broad. The world lost an enormous talent when he died in 2021. 

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Kotto, as one can see from his film credits, was no stranger to science fiction. In “Alien,” he lived on a space vessel and did battle with a space creature, while “The Running Man” afforded him the chance to work in a futuristic dystopia. 

In 2015, Kotto spoke with the Bigg Issue, and the asked him about his close brush with “Star Trek.” Kotto recalls his refusal well, and expresses a small amount of regret over the matter. He explained: 

“I think I made some wrong decisions in my life, man. I should have done that, but I walked away. When you’re making movies, you’d tend to say no to TV. It’s like when you’re in college and someone asks you to the high school dance. You say no.” 

For many decades, TV was seen as a “lesser” medium than TV, and film actors tended to stay away from doing TV shows. This was true even as late as 1987, and Kotto didn’t want to abandon any potential film roles to commit to a 26-episode season of “Star Trek.” Kotto is also very, very American, so it’s unclear if he would have affected a French accent to play Jean-Luc Picard. At the very least, he would have had the appropriate authority.

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But in the end, I think we can all agree that the Captain Picard audiences were given ended up being the best.