Let's me fair, nobody, not even the strongest warrior, could have been built like Ahnuld. But it's hard to imagine anybody else in the role.
But who else could have pulled it off?
Charles Bronson as a middle-aged Conan would have been good.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dnmLz5btiyY/UhpcB3GsZbI/AAAAAAAAIQA/DLcjn9ZJa7Y/s1600/Bronson.jpg
Im thinking Woody Allen. With his physique and stature for sure he could have replaced Arnold.
Well nobody really could or should. Just wish Arnold could have dropped that big heavy austrian-german accent. ALWAYS follows him in every movie. Impossible to really get into his characters when he has that thick accent in my opinion.
Yeah, ‘cause, like, big, white, Aryan Conan’s not Teutonic or anything?
shareActually Conan's not Teutonic. He's Celtic. His creator, Robert E. Howard, was an ardent Celtophile, and most of his fictional heroes are of Irish or Highland Scottish extraction. In the history he wrote of his fictional Hyborian Age, the Cimmerians (who are Conan's people, even if Howard borrowed the name of a totally unrelated, non-Celtic people from ancient history -- Howard was lousy at inventing names, so he almost always just borrowed existing ones) are explicitly described as the descendants of the Atlanteans, and the ancestors of the Gaels of Ireland and the Scottish highlands.
So... Conan (like the Atlantean King Kull) is not Teutonic; he's a proto-Irishman.
I would watch Woody Allen as Conan, but for none of the reasons that I love Arnold as Conan.
shareYou mean the Cimmerian accent?
shareNah. That made the character.
shareDolph Lundgren immediately sprang to my mind. It's just a matter of whether the (black)wig would work or not.
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I didn't like the Godfather, so what?
Similar to Dolph: Mathias Hues, a Dutch actor trained in martial arts. In terms of fighting skills, either Dolph or Mathias would have arguably better choices. I freaking love Arnold, but I was trained by the world's highest-ranking sword master, Founding Master Chang Sik Kim, and Arnie's sword work is so slow you have time to bake a cake between each of his techniques (moves). Nonetheless, this is my favorite movie of all Time. I want Valeria to have my children.
shareHues would have been laughable as the guy couldn't act his way out of a paper bag
shareFerrigno
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/EBWogy8w-4k/hqdefault.jpg
But Arnold wasn't perfect just because of his size, he oozed charisma.
Ferrigno's voice and lack of acting skill were a major issue for him. But the physique he had going on back then, he was a monster.
shareThat was equally true for Arnold.
shareI think the other poster hit it on the head though with the charisma thing. Arnold just worked even with his limitations. Lou’s voice was a problem with his hearing, different issue compared to an accent. Also I have seen several things with Lou, outside of the Hulk none of it was very good.
shareThe other poster was me, lol. I think Arnold could barely speak English when Conan was made but he had a presence.
shareSorry was tired when I wrote that on the phone lol
sharebarely speak English? he'd won Mr. Olympia numerous times before getting into acting, jetting all around the world meeting powerful people and laying the groundwork for the next few decades of dominating Hollywood, then the political spectrum....
barely any english huh
Arnold could speak English just fine in 1982. He'd been living in the U.S. since 1968, and speaking predominantly English for almost a decade. Just because he had not shed his heavy Austrian accent -- which he still hasn't to this day -- doesn't mean he wasn't completely fluent in the language. He was.
What he couldn't do very well at all at that point was act. I love Arnold as a movie action hero, but he was wooden as hell in Conan -- which is why director John Milius very wisely chose to limit his dialogue, rely heavily on brilliant cinematography and a truly stellar musical score to tell the story and convey its emotion visually and musically, and to hire top-notch actors like James Earl Jones and Max Von Sydow to carry the acting part of the film. Schwarzenegger has improved a lot as an actor since then. He'll never win an Oscar, or be compared to Olivier or Brando, but within his limited range of action or light comedy/action star, he's become pretty good.
That's true. Arnold is a personality. So much more than Jean Claude Van Damme or Dolph Lundgren or Ferrigno. Not that those guys don't have something, but Arnold is big because of Arnold as much as because of his muscles.
shareAmen sister
shareSomeone who was already in it - Arnold's buddy, Franco Columbu. Conan from the books is short and stocky. But that's based on his built, don't know much about his acting.
share[deleted]
OK, if you say so. I've only read about the books, so I might have mixed them up with something else.
shareNo, you're okay. An actor should reflect the spirit of the character, not the letter of the character, so Columbu would have been a fine choice. Mel Gibson, suggested by Clueless, below, would be a terrible, gutless choice. The poster who is "correcting" you is just a dick who wants us to know that he can read. Not imagine. Just read.
We have far too many little boys on this site.
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Uh... Conan from the books is not short. Where are you getting this? Because it's not anything that R.E. Howard ever wrote. Howard gave Conan's appearance in virtually all the stories he wrote of him. In "The Hour of the Dragon," Howard described him thus:
... a tall man, mightily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs. He was clad in silk and velvet, with the royal lions of Aquilonia worked in gold upon his rich jupon...
Robert E. Howard's Conan wasnt as musclebound but I still loved Arnold in the role, maybe Mel Gibson could of fit the bill as a safe replacement?
shareNO ONE!!!
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