Kelsey Grammer is a screen icon, particularly when it comes to his work on television. However, his career could have gone down a vastly different route had George Lucas cast him as Han Solo in Star Wars.
Yes, Grammer was indeed among the actors considered to play the Galaxy's greatest smuggler, once upon a time.
Lucas weighed up heaps of options before choosing Harrison Ford, including Al Pacino and Burt Reynolds, and Grammer reflected on his audition in a recent interview (via SFFGazette.com) discussing the Frasier revival.
Explaining that one of his university professors put him in contact with the agent for "[a] guy doing a casting for a movie about space," Grammer added: "I walk around and knock on the door, sure enough, they call me in, and I sit down, and there is. I didn't know him at the time, George Lucas. 'We're making this thing about...[it's] a fairytale in space. You know, two guys rescue a princess.'"
"Great, sound like fun. So he said 'You're right for...well, there's two parts...maybe the older guy. He's kind of, you know, a gunslinging kind of guy. You know, an adventurer.'"
Unfortunately for Grammer, he never heard back from Lucas and didn't realise the mystery sci-fi project had moved on without him until he sat down to watch it.
"I'm watching a little bit longer and, 'Holy s**t, this is that movie. This is that thing the guy told me about. It's them. It's...oh, my God.' And, you know, I either dodged a bullet or missed a really big opportunity."
A few years, later, the actor's big break came when he took on the role of Dr. Frasier Crane in Cheers. However, he's proven to be no stranger to geekdom after taking on the role of Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand; his work in that movie made an impact and we're hoping he'll reprise the role in Deadpool 3 after a brief cameo in X-Men: Day of Future Past.
Star Wars, which was retroactively retitled Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope by Lucas, arrived in theaters in 1977. It was the first film released in the Star Wars film series and the fourth chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set "a long time ago" in a fictional universe where the galaxy is ruled by the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the story focuses on a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance, who aim to destroy the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star.
When Rebel leader Princess Leia is apprehended by the Empire, Luke Skywalker acquires stolen architectural plans of the Death Star and sets out to rescue her while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The cast includes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew.
Take a look at this new interview with Grammer in the player below.