6. Mick Jagger, Ned Kelly

6. Mick Jagger, Ned Kelly

When it came to finding someone to play Australian folk hero Ned Kelly—the stout, bushy-bearded Irish immigrant who robbed and murdered his away across the Outback—producers naturally had only one man in mind: willowy British rock star Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones singer was picked (displacing Sir Ian McKellen, according to film historians) by executives who believed he’d bring in a young, hip audience, and who made sure his name dwarfed Kelly’s on the posters. Not even the debacle surrounding Jagger’s debut in Performance, released earlier that year, could have predicted how misguided this decision was. Jagger’s casting was met swiftly by protests from actors’ unions and even Kelly’s own descendants; the production was plagued by injuries, illness, and wildfires; and Marianne Faithfull, cast as the female lead, was so devastated by her collapsing romance with Jagger, she attempted suicide shortly after arriving in Australia. So it’s no wonder Jagger didn’t much feel like promoting Ned Kelly once it finally came out, which certainly didn’t help a film that—while beautifully shot, and featuring a soundtrack of Shel Silverstein songs performed by Waylon Jennings and Kris Kristofferson—is mostly a turgid affair, alleviated only by Jagger’s silly brogue and the sight of his pillowy lips perched atop an Amish neckbeard. Although he would take another stab at acting with films like 1987’s Running Out Of Luck and 1992’s Freejack, Ned Kelly was enough to sour Jagger—and producers—on his being a movie star for decades. “That was a load of shit. I only made it because I had nothing else to do,” he spat defensively upon Ned Kelly’s release. Fortunately, he found plenty of other ways to stay busy. [Sean O’Neal]