Never So Few - Steve McQueen

Steve McQueen

Rat Pack cohort Sammy Davis, Jr. was originally slated to play McQueen's role, but Sinatra yanked it away after Davis mildly criticized Sinatra during a radio interview. McQueen was mainly noted at the time for the television series Wanted: Dead or Alive and the horror movie The Blob. Never So Few marked his introduction to working with director John Sturges, who went on to cast McQueen in his breakout role the following year, as second lead in The Magnificent Seven, and later as the motorcycle-jumping lead in the classic The Great Escape.

On the original US one-sheet theatrical poster (see infobox above), only Sinatra and Lollobrigida were top billed. As illustrated to the right, in the 1967 re-release McQueen's credit was moved above the title and he was featured prominently in the artwork.

In a similar move, Sinatra later recast the role of Rat Pack colleague Peter Lawford after Lawford failed to deliver his brother-in-law President John F. Kennedy for a stay at Sinatra's house, giving Lawford's part in Robin and the 7 Hoods to Bing Crosby. Sinatra would never speak to Lawford again.