Cast
The Life article described Wojtowicz as "a dark, thin fellow with the broken-faced good looks of an Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman". Hoffman would later be offered the role when Pacino briefly quit the production. An 18-year-old actor was originally to be cast in the role of Sal to match the age of the actual Salvatore. The table below summarizes the main cast of Dog Day Afternoon.
| Character | Actor | Role | Similar person from Life article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sonny Wortzik | Al Pacino | Bank robber | John Wojtowicz |
| Salvatore "Sal" Naturile | John Cazale | Sonny's partner in the robbery | Salvatore Naturile |
| Sergeant Eugene Moretti | Charles Durning | Police Sergeant who originally negotiates with Sonny | |
| Agent Sheldon | James Broderick | FBI agent who replaces Moretti in negotiations | Agent Richard Baker |
| Agent Murphy | Lance Henriksen | FBI agent/driver | Agent Murphy |
| Leon Shermer | Chris Sarandon | Sonny's pre-operative transsexual wife | Ernest Aron |
| Sylvia "The Mouth" | Penelope Allen | Head teller | Shirley Bell (Wojtowicz also called her "The Mouth") |
| Mulvaney | Sully Boyar | Bank manager | Robert Barrett |
| Angie | Susan Peretz | Sonny's estranged divorced wife | Carmen Bifulco |
| Jenny "The Squirrel" | Carol Kane | Bank teller | |
| Stevie | Gary Springer | Bank Robber | Robert left soon after John and Salvatore held up the bank |
| Howard Calvin | John Marriott | Unarmed bank guard | Calvin Jones |
| Doctor | Philip Charles MacKenzie | MacKenzie's debut |
Read more about this topic: Dog Day Afternoon
Famous quotes containing the word cast:
“Like a bad doctor who has fallen down sick you are cast down, and cannot find what sort of drugs would cure your ailment.”
—Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.)
“You have waited, you always wait, you dumb, beautiful ministers,
We receive you with free sense at last, and are insatiate
hence-forward,
Not you any more shall be able to foil us, or withhold yourselves
from us,
We use you, and do not cast you aside—we plant you permanently within us,
We fathom you not—we love you—there is perfection in you also,
You furnish your parts, toward eternity,
Great or small, you furnish your parts toward the soul.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“You have overcome yourself: but why do you show yourself to me only as the one overcome? I want to see the victor: cast roses into the abyss and say, “Here is my thanks to the monster, because it didn’t know how to swallow me!””
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)