Sean Connery - stunt casting?

Sean Connery was a pretty blatant and a pretty bad piece of stunt casting in my view. Connery has a very limited range (and accent) as an actor.

Of course i might be biased because i'm young and first came to know of Connery through Saturday Night Live. In fact i suspect that having the SNL Connery in The Last Crusade might have been more entertaining.

He was very good at what he chose to do.

Just like Harrison was very good at what chose to do, though he probably has a better range as a carpenter than an actor.

What is "Stunt Casting"?

Connery, like Ford was never a great actor, they were (and maybe still are) movie stars.

They're never going to be remembered as chameleon who inhabited a role. They're types cast into certain roles, and though Henry Sr was introduced as a book worm, it wasn't much of a stretch to see him go alpha...

So if by stunt casting you mean casting against type, I would agree to a degree.

"Stunt Casting" is usually a trick done by a television or movie series to get some extra notice by having a 'big name' actor thrown in - often out of the blue. This isn't to say that the actor is bad for the role, but it's something clearly done to generate sales above all other considerations.

Example: Having Mark Hamill appear as a minor 'bad guy' in the first few minutes of an episode of Chuck, and having that episode hyped in advertising for weeks 'cause "Luke Skywalker" is in it.

I don't really see that being the case in the Indiana Jones films. Honestly, the closest you would really get was Shia LaBouf for Crystal Skull, who remains a pretty big name for the millenial generation - but the advertising and marketing never really said "Here! Watch this movie 'cause it have SEAN (or Shia) in it!"

I think Gregory Peck or Charlton Heston would've been more appropriate casting.

I don't really buy Connery/Ford as father/son, but I do give credit, despite being only 12 years older, Connery did look considerably older than Ford, so its understandable that it worked for most.

Whether it was "stunt casting" is irrelevant. The people who love Last Crusade praise Connery and Ford's chemistry as being a highlight, which means the the casting worked.

There's an element of 'stunt' in that 007 became the father of Indy, who was in turn an imagined proto-Bond (!)