The character Richard "Dick" Hallorann from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining almost wasn't played by Scatman Crothers—Slim Pickens was originally offered the part. In both Stephen King's novel and Kubrick's movie, Dick Hallorann is an extremely important supporting character. He's the head chef at the ominous Overlook Hotel, and also has the power to use telepathic abilities he refers to as "the shining"—the gift from which King's novel takes its name.
Crothers' performance as Dick Hallorann in The Shining is iconic. When the Torrance family—Jack, Wendy, and Danny—arrive at the Overlook to stay there for the off-season, Dick gives them a tour of the place. Instantly, he understands and recognizes that Danny also has "the shining", and explains to the boy what that involves. Eventually, as Jack's mental state deteriorates due to supernatural forces in the hotel, Danny sends a psychic distress call to Dick. He rushes to help Danny and his mother, but he is attacked by Jack, forces from the Overlook, and dies. In the novel, he survives and ends up helping Wendy raise Danny.
Scatman Crothers gained a lot of critical recognition for his intense portrayal of Dick Hallorann in The Shining. In fact, Crothers won the Best Supporting Actor awards from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror in 1980. He also went on to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame the year after the movie was released. But it turns out that Crothers almost wasn't selected to play Dick Hallorann.
The Shining: The Actor Who Almost Played Dick Hallorann
The part of Dick Hallorann almost went to Louis Burton Lindley, Jr.—better known by his stage name, Slim Pickens. Pickens was a rodeo performer and film and TV actor, known for his cowboy roles. Today, he's best remembered for his comedic roles in Dr. Strangelove and Blazing Saddles. Pickens told Kubrick that he would only appear in The Shining if his scenes could be shot in fewer than 100 takes. Of course, this wasn't a promise Kubrick—who had an infamously intensive directing process—could make. So Pickens' agent showed the script to Don Schwartz, the agent of Scatman Crothers, who ultimately accepted the role.
It definitely would've been problematic if Kubrick's plan to cast Pickens as Dick Hallorann worked out. This is because in the King novel, Dick Hallorann is a Black character—the only Black character in the story, in fact. If Pickens did end up playing Dick, it would have been a total white-washing of the character, and any backlash from King fans would have been completely justified. Beyond that, if Scatman Crothers didn't end up playing Dick, there would've been zero Black actors in the entire movie.
The Shining filmmakers certainly lucked out in other ways, too, when Crothers accepted the part. Crothers turned Dick Hallorann into a legendary character in the horror genre. He played the role in a way that's unforgettable; Crothers makes Dick seem creepy when he teaches Danny about his telepathic abilities, but throughout the movie the audience also trusts him and knows that he's a friend to the Torrances. If Pickens played the part, things may have been different. Pickens was primarily known as a comic actor, and inserting him into a serious horror film could have confused viewers' reactions to Dick's iconic moments and ruined the eerie ambiance of the now-classic movie.