Today I Learned …

The role of John McClane in the movie Die Hard, played to perfection by Bruce Willis, was originally offered to Frank Sinatra. Of course, it was just a formality at that point, as Sinatra was 72 years old by then. Sinatra had starred in a 1968 movie called The Detective, and Die Hard was technically a sequel to it. Sinatra’s contract gave him right of first refusal to any sequels, so he had to be offered the role first. The Detective was the movie adaptation of a book by Roderick Thorp, published in 1966. In 1979, Thorp published the sequel to The Detective, titled Nothing Lasts Forever. In that book, a gang of criminals led by a guy named Gruber takes over an Los Angeles highrise during a company party, and holds John McClane’s family member hostage. Oh, and it’s set during the Christmas season.