![\"Dustin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dustin-Hoffman-Actor-2016-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n
Wed 22 July 2026 20:45, UK <\/p>\n
He might be one of the greatest actors of his generation, and quite possibly one of the greatest actors of all time, but one thing Dustin Hoffman<\/a> never was and never will be is an action hero.<\/p>\n No offence intended to the little fella, but he made his name by being a bit of a dweeb<\/a>. He was frequently cast as introverted, neurotic characters who kept themselves to themselves until they couldn\u2019t any longer, and you can\u2019t exactly imagine him getting buffed, jacked, and gunning down disposable henchmen.<\/p>\n In fact, at no point in his long and distinguished career has Hoffman ever been in an action flick. He\u2019s made a few thrillers, he\u2019s popped up in a couple of fantasy films, and he\u2019s even dabbled in a little sci-fi here and there, but shootouts, explosions, punch-ups, and bulging biceps have never been a factor.<\/p>\n Despite that, he was at the very top of the wish-list to bring a character to life who would eventually become known as one of the industry\u2019s most iconic action heroes. Give him a vest and a red headband, and you could easily imagine him as John Rambo, right? Of course you couldn\u2019t, that\u2019s fucking ridiculous.<\/p>\n While First Blood was a smaller-scale, contained thriller that saw Sylvester Stallone\u2019s protagonist kill precisely one person, and that was by accident, the sequels increasingly upped the ante, and by the time the franchise drew to a close with 2019\u2019s Last Blood, Rambo had literally dropped hundreds of bodies<\/a>.<\/p>\n He\u2019d shot them, stabbed them, blown them up, slit their throats, turned them into paste with a vehicle-mounted machine gun, impaled them with arrows, and almost everything between, and under absolutely no circumstances could anyone picture the Academy Award-winning star of The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, and Kramer vs Kramer doing any of that.<\/p>\n Still, when First Blood initially entered development in the late 1970s, it could have been him. \u201cI was the first one asked to do Rambo,\u201d Hoffman revealed. \u201cBut it was a little too much violence.\u201d If that\u2019s how he felt about the first one, then you can only imagine how he would have felt about the other four.<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n Stallone was absolutely nowhere near the first pick, either, with everyone from Al Pacino and Burt Reynolds to James Caan and Paul Newman turning it down, and even when he did get the job, he was convinced it would be the end of his career<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t, and it wasn\u2019t the last time Sly felt that way, with Rambo having the opposite effect and doubling up alongside Rocky to make him a superstar.<\/p>\n As good as Hoffman is, Rambo? We can\u2019t see it. At least he felt the same way, and knowing how the series turned out, it\u2019s enough to make you wonder what it would have looked like to see the diminutive legend ripping some poor soldier\u2019s throat out with his bare hands.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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