This post originally appeared in the Art Of Manliness ‘Trunk’ – a collection of cool stuff we find while wandering the vast deserts of the world wide web.

Here’s a bit of manly movie trivia for you. Despite being one of his most iconic roles, Clint Eastwood wasn’t even considered to play the title role of Dirty Harry until a whole bunch of other actors turned the job down.

Frank Sinatra was originally cast to play Dirty Harry, but a broken wrist he suffered while filming the Manchurian Candidate prevented him from hoisting Harry Calagan’s signature beast of a gun. So he had to quit. John Wayne was then offered the role, but he turned it down because he didn’t “like being offered Sinatra’s rejections.” Producers then went after Robert Mitchum, but he turned it down because he thought the role was a “piece of junk.” Burt Lancaster was then offered the role, but he turned it down because he didn’t agree with the movie’s violence. Finally Eastwood was offered the script and the rest was movie history.

Eastwood needs to ask himself one question: Do I feel lucky that everybody turned down Dirty Harry? Well, do ya, punk?

Via The Gun Nut