Patrick Duffy Reveals That He Lost Roles for ‘Indiana Jones’ and ‘Star Wars’

Patrick Duffy is a very good actor who has played in some iconic roles. Whether he was the dad on Step by Step or Bob Ewing on “Dallas” the idea of Duffy playing in any role seems interesting. The man has been in big TV roles and even some good movies in his career. He is by no means a slouch when it comes to acting chops.

Yet, Duffy is not the only actor in Hollywood who goes out for roles. Due to this, other marquee names are going to go out for parts too. Duffy revealed recently in an interview with Huffington Post Live that he lost out on two big roles.

When asked a question by a viewer on what roles he passed up on, Duffy decided to tell the world that he tried out for two major roles that he simply did not get. The first was “Indiana Jones”. He claimed that anyone with a TV presence went out for the part as it was Steven Spielberg and a script that could be big. He was not the only actor of major proportions who went out for the part though.

He said regarding the situation:

“I went to an audition to read for Steven Spielberg, didn’t end up being him, but for ‘Indiana Jones’. Anybody I think who was on television or had a TV cue probably went in for it. But I went in for it and Tom Selleck went in for it, and of course Harrison Ford did it.”

Obviously we now know that Ford got the part and has starred in all Indiana Jones films since. Obviously Ford has been in several other movies since and Indiana Jones really pushed his career to the next level. It could have done the same for Duffy, but he simply was not right for the role of course, which happens in Hollywood.

Interestingly enough, this was not the only part Duffy went out for that he did not get. Patrick Duffy was up for Luke Skywalker, or at least was going to try out for the iconic “Star Wars” role. He recalled:

“I actually went into a meeting, and I didn’t even know who he was, for Luke Skywalker on ‘Star Wars.’ And I walked into a room–it was a bare room at Goldwyn Studios, and I sat in this chair for the longest time and it was empty and somebody came in and went through a file cabinet and then left, and then the secretary came in and said, ‘thank you very much.’ I said, ‘okay,’ because I had never worked, I didn’t know how it was all done.

And when I left, apparently the person who came in and went through the file cabinet was either Lucas or one of his people, and they just didn’t think I was right for the part when they saw me sitting in the chair, and I didn’t get that either.”

George Lucas is well known for his quirks, so the simplistic idea of perfect sitting in a chair would possibly set him off. Of course the part of Skywalker went to Mark Hamill, who then went on to play a fantastic Joker character for the animated Batman series. Duffy has mainly been in television. He has movies to his credit, but Duffy will forever be known for Dallas and other TV shows he was part of over the years.

The thing is, while Patrick Duffy may be known for that, that is by no means a bad career. He missed out on iconic roles. He by no means missed out on a great career though. At the end of the day though, how weird would it be seeing him as Indiana Jones or Luke Skywalker instead of Hamill and Ford?