Though he was widely regarded as one of the best directors of all time, Orson Welles also enjoyed a fairly prolific acting career. Welles previously appeared in popular films like The Muppet Movie (1979) and Touch of Evil (1958).

In television, Welles was primarily known for programs like Orson Welles Great Mystery, where he served as narrator. However, Welles almost starred in a slightly more lighthearted television series: Fantasy Island.

Executive producer Aaron Spelling discussed the show’s beginnings in his memoir, Aaron Spelling: A Prime-Time Life. The series originally began as a series of films starring actor Ricardo Montalban. Spelling admitted that from the beginning, he had pictured Montalban in the role of main character Mr. Roarke, though ABC had other plans.

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“ABC gave us an order to do a Fantasy Island TV movie in 1977,” wrote Spelling. “We immediately thought of Ricardo Montalban as suave Mr. Roarke, the wishmaster. ABC had another idea. They saw Mr. Roarke as Orson Welles.”

Spelling had no issue with Welles. Instead, the producer simply understood that given the dark and serious tone of the series, no one but Montalban would do.

“He was an incredible director and a great actor,” Spelling said of Welles. “We thought it would be much more interesting to have Ricardo...Welles was great, but he wasn’t Roarke, no more than we would cast Ricardo to play a vampire in a Dracula movie.”