The Longest Day (film) - Casting

Casting

• The role of Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin H. Vandervoort was actively sought by Charlton Heston, but the last-minute decision of John Wayne to take a role in the film prevented Heston from participating. While everyone else accepted twenty-five thousand dollars as payment, John Wayne insisted on a quarter of a million dollars to punish Zanuck for referring to him as "poor John Wayne" regarding Wayne's problems with his lavish movie The Alamo.
• Sergeant Kaffeekanne's name is German for "coffee pot", which he always carries.
• It is a common misconception that Bill Millin, the piper who accompanies Lord Lovat to Normandy with his bagpipes, played himself in the film. He was actually portrayed by Pipe Major Leslie de Laspee, the official piper to the Queen Mother in 1961.
• In Sainte-Mère-Église, Private John Steele from the 82nd Airborne (played by Red Buttons) has been memorialized by the local population with a dummy hanging from a parachute from the church tower on which he accidentally landed.
• Richard Todd, who played Major John Howard, leader of the British Airborne assault on the Pegasus Bridge, took part in the real bridge assault on D-Day. Todd was offered the chance to play himself, but thought the part would be too small, so he asked to play the part of Major John Howard instead. Shortly after the British have captured the Orne bridge (later renamed Horsa Bridge) in the film, one of the soldiers tells Todd, playing Howard, that all they have to do now is sit tight and wait for the 7th Parachute Battalion to relieve them, to which Todd replies dismissively that the Paras are always late. This was a private joke, as Todd had been the adjutant of the 7th Parachute Battalion on D-Day and did help relieve the forces on the bridge. During the scene of Todd as Howard awaiting relief from the beachhead, an officer in a Para beret next to Todd, playing Howard, is an actor playing Richard Todd.
• Joseph Lowe landed on Omaha Beach and scaled the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. He repeated the climb for the cameras 17 years later as a serving member of the 505th Airborne Battle Group who provided US Army film extras.
• Actor Curd Jürgens portrayed the German General Blumentritt who muses on the incompetence of his superiors. Jürgens himself was actually imprisoned by the Nazis in his youth.
• Former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was considered for the role of himself in the film, and he indicated his willingness. However, it was decided that makeup artists couldn't make him appear young enough to play his World War II self. The role of General Eisenhower went to Henry Grace, a set decorator with no acting experience, but who had been in the film industry since the mid-1930s. He was a dead ringer for the younger Eisenhower, though his voice differed.
• Acclaimed British actor Christopher Lee auditioned for a role, but was turned down because he did not look like a military man, even though he had served in the Royal Air Force as an Intelligence Officer. However, some film books incorrectly credit him with a role in the film.
• The film was the last one made by Sean Connery before he was cast in the role of James Bond. It is also noticeable that James Bond's later rivals, "Auric Goldfinger" and "Karl Stromberg", are played by the German actors Gert Fröbe and Curd Jürgens respectively, who coincidentally also take "Nemesis" roles in this movie (Sergeant Kaffeekanne, and General Günther Blumentritt).
• Canadian journalist Charles Lynch played an unnamed war correspondent on Juno beach, who calls the homing pigeons "damned traitors" when they fly towards Germany. Lynch, then working for Reuters, was one of a handful of journalists to accompany the troops ashore in the actual invasion.
• Sean Connery had a part in both movies made from Cornelius Ryan's non-fiction books: Private Flanagan in The Longest Day; Major General Urquhart in A Bridge too Far.
• Wolfgang Preiss similarly had parts in the same two films: Maj. Gen. Max Pemsel in The Longest Day; Field Marshal Von Rundstedt in A Bridge too Far.
• Mel Ferrer was originally signed to play the role of General James M. Gavin but withdrew from the role due to a scheduling conflict