MovieChat Forums > Family Plot (1976) Discussion > Hitchcock Fired Roy Thinnes as Adamson

Hitchcock Fired Roy Thinnes as Adamson


Villain Arthur Adamson was originally played by TV actor Roy Thinnes ("The Invaders") who had just appeared as the villain in "The Hindenberg."

Hitchcock introduced Thinnes at a press conference as "Roy Scheider" (one of the actors Hitchcock had asked to play Adamson, along with Burt Reynolds), suggesting Hitchcock regretted hiring Thinnes.

Roy Thinnes filmed "Family Plot" for a few weeks before Hitchcock fired him and replaced him with William Devane. Thinnes confronted Hitchcock at a restaurant and asked why he was fired: "You were too nice for the role," Hitchcock said. (But Thinnes had clashed with Hitchcock too often.)

You can see a photo of Roy Thinnes as Adamson (with Dern, Black, and Harris) on the "photos" page of this imdb.com "Family Plot" site.

Thinnes is still in "Family Plot," from behind, carrying the bishop out of the cathedral.

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Bill Devane was Hitch's first choice (after Scheider and Reynolds) but he was unavailable as he was acting on the stage. The stage production fell apart and Devane became available. Hitchcock (who was not happy with Thinnes) decided to make the switch.

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I just finished watching "Family Plot" and really enjoyed it. The one scene I didn't like was the one with Blanche behaving ridiculously in the out of control Mustang as it was careening down what I think was Malibu Cyn. Road, but otherwise I found it to be quite enjoyable specially the last half hour or so. It kind of has a Columbo type quality to it but I love Columbo so for me that is a compliment.
I wanted to thank you for the info. It's great to be able to read stuff about movies that you cannot normally find elsewhere you both seem to have lots of knowledge on this movie. Thanx for sharing it with the rest of us.
Brandon

"There are two things you should know about me: I'm very rich~~and I'm very wealthy." BlackWidow

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