Replacing Colonel Trautman

Just one day before filming was due to commence, Kirk Douglas dropped out of the movie, leaving ‘First Blood’ without a Colonel Trautman.

Stallone recalled Douglas left the project after the studio refused to let him rewrite the script, which would have seen the picture follow the book’s ending and see Rambo perish.

He said: "The plan to include Kirk Douglas snowballed into something I never expected. He said to me, ‘Here's what I want. At the very end of the movie, I should kill you. The audience sees a cop car driving away, and as it disappears into the fog, a hand reaches up to the rear view mirror. The camera turns up, and we see me. It turns up a bit higher, and I'm wearing your headband.’”

The pitch was immediately rejected, and Kirk opted to leave the movie.

After scrambling for another actor to play the colonel, eventually Richard Crenna signed on, though had to have his lines fed to him in his first scene.