Jamestown Trivia
By Mitch Berg
There are a few famous people from my hometown, Jamestown North Dakota; Peggy Lee, Louis L’Amour, Darren Erstad, MN Third District congressman Jim Ramstad, disc jockey Shadoe Stevens…
…and, in a deep dig into the trivia bank, Harley Venton, longtime character actor and former soap opera star, a former student of my dad’s. I’d always known Harley was one of those rare critters – a character actor that does pretty well.
I’d had no idea exactly how well he had done:
In 1983, ABC expressed interest in Venton for the role of David Addison in the show, Moonlighting. Venton screen-tested for the role of Addison in September 1984. Cybill Shepherd wanted Venton to play Addison, but producer Glen Gordon Caron ultimately gave the role role to Bruce Willis. Venton was the only other actor to be screen-tested, and that screen test can still be viewed on the DVD copy of the pilot for Moonlighting.
Wow. Who knew?
And while it’s hard to imagine anyo9ne but Willis in that role (and harder still to imagine Harley Venton starring in Die Hard), it’s pretty cool to hear about.
