IMO Tom Hanks' performance as Gump was absolute perfection. However, if I have to choose an actor that might have been able to play the role almost as good, it would be Dustin Hoffman. His performance in Rain Main was also absolute perfection.
shareHanks played the hell out of this role and its crazy John travolta was also considered for this role!
shareTravolta was pretty good in that movie 'Phenomenon' where he plays a simple man with extraordinary abilities. He might have been alright as Gump but it's still hard to picture anyone other than Hanks.
shareI hate myself for saying this because I can't stand the guy ... but Adam Sandler.
shareI can't see Willis or Murray doing at that time unless it was done strictly for laughs. They would have considered playing an intellectually limited man as beneath them. They only come to such roles only after the offers to be oddballs, malcontents, or smart alecks have long since dried up.
shareWeird Al Yankovic
shareJohn Travolta turned it down but later regretted it, but Hanks knocked it out of the park. But him playing the teenage Gump was strange, they could have gotten someone who closely resembles Hanks, say Tom Everett Scott or even Hanks' son Colin for the part
shareI'm glad Travolta turned it down cause then he probably wouldn't have been in Pulp Fiction. It's hard to imagine anybody but Travolta as Vincent in Pulp Fiction. Of course it's also hard to imagine anybody but Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump. Well, unless someone made it exactly like the book.
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