Ian McKellen as Dumbledore
Movie: Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Played by: Richard Harris
Because McKellen needed more opportunity, when the actor who’d been playing Dumbledore, Richard Harris, passed away, they offered the role to McKellen. (Christopher Plummer and Donald Sutherland were busy.) McKellen turned it down out of respect. “… one of the last things [Harris] did publicly was say what a dreadful actor he thought I was,’ said McKellen in an article by Alloy. “It would not have been appropriate for me to take over his part. It would have been unfair.” Translation, I might be the lesser actor, but I am the bigger man.