HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, GIP.

	There's been some speculation in recent days which implies that actor Humphrey Bogart ended up playing the leading role in the film Casablanca by virtue of the fact that Ronald Reagan either was unwilling or unable to star in the movie instead. Speculation implies that Reagan was the first choice for the role.
While a case can be made for such idle speculation, the notion that Ronald Reagan was the original and best choice to play the role of Rick Blaine is mostly apocryphal.
The facts are:
	According to author Harlan Lebo in Casablanca: Behind the Scenes, on January 07, 1942-precisely one month after the bombing of Pearl Harbor-the Warner Bros. Hollywood News Press Service issued a release which reported that "Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan will be teamed for the third time, in Casablanca."
But within hours, the studio changed the public announcement of the casting, and on January 08 announced that Reagan and Sheridan had been reassigned, to appear in a movie entitled Shadow of Their Wings.
However, Reagan didn't appear in that movie either, which was eventually retitled Wings for the Eagle, and starred Sheridan and actor Dennis Morgan. Possibly this was due to the fact that, as a lieutenant in the US Army Reserve, Reagan's commission had been activated.
To phrase it more forcefully, Ronald Reagan had been drafted into the Army, for active service in World War II.
	On February 12, 1942, Warner Bros. Executive Producer Hal Wallis told fellow studio producers, in a memo, "Please figure on Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan for Casablanca." Army service or not, Wallis would later claim, Reagan was hardly the ideal choice for the role, further asserting that he (Wallis) had had Humphrey Bogart in mind for the Casablanca role all along.
And despite a last-minute attempt by the notoriously self-important actor George Raft to secure the role for himself, Raft-who has effectively made Bogart a rising star by default by turning down roles eventually played by Bogart in the films High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon-was politely rebuffed by Wallis and studio head Jack Warner, thereby securing Bogart's lasting place in movie history.
	In any event, Reagan-then an ardent Democrat-missed out on two scores: He wasn't cast in Casablanca and, as a soldier, the only shooting he was associated with for the duration of the war was shooting Army instructional films and propaganda-oriented short subjects...mostly on the Warner Bros. Back lot, in Hollywood, USA.
The role in Casablanca originally intended for Ann Sheridan was named Lois Meredith. That role was rewritten extensively; what remains of the Lois Meredith character appears in Casablanca as the character Yvonne-played by actress Madeleine LeBeau-indelicately rejected by Rick Blaine (Bogart), and eventually turning up at Rick's Café Americain on the arm of a Nazi soldier.
	The female lead in Casablanca was rewritten entirely, and given the name Ilsa Lund.
Interestingly, the highest-paid actor to appear in Casablanca was Paul Henreid, in the role of Victor Laszlo; most of the cast members-including Bogart-were Warner Bros. Contract players, meaning that they drew exactly the same weekly salaries while performing in Casablanca as they did for every other movie they made, all year long. And, to be sure, at that point there was little or no reason to believe that Casablanca was anything special: It was the rule rather than the exception that the actors would arrive on the set in the morning to act in scenes written the night before, or even later, on the set. Literally, during the filming of the movie's climax, when Laszlo and Ilsa-instead of Rick and Ilsa-board the plane bound for Lisbon, it was as much a surprise to Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Henreid as it is to a first-time viewer today.
	But it wasn't all Bedtime for Bonzo for Ronald Reagan, either: Brother Rat-also starring first wife Jane Wyman-King's Row, Juke Girl, and many others are fine films; conversely, if a film fan hasn't seen Humphrey Bogart as the bad-guy in cowboy movies such as The Oklahoma Kid and Virginia City (with James Cagney and Errol Flynn as the good-guys, respectively), or-for God's sake!-as a vampire in The Return of Dr. X…well, you've got some more movies to see, my friend.
It might also be noted that, on occasion, a film actor announces a "permanent retirement from the screen," but is lured back, sometimes years later, for a myriad or reasons. Mary Pickford, once America's Sweetheart and the most recognized and celebrated film personality in the world, was sought after by director Billy Wilder for the Norma Desmond role in Sunset Boulevard, but talks fell through; for years, Cary Grant held an option on the Frank Galvin character in The Verdict, a part eventually played by Paul Newman; Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco was in active negotiations to return to movies on more than one occasion, most notably for one more film with director Alfred Hitchcock; and-a full two decades after his 1961 retirement, James Cagney actually was lured back, twice, for roles in Ragtime and the excellent made-for-television movie Terrible Joe Moran, also starring Art Carney.
	Similarly, Academy Award-winnng actresses and 1930s icons Claudette Colbert and Loretta Young performed in made-for television movies during the 1980s.
The title role in the 1970 movie Patton was written specifically for actor Robert Mitchum. The producers went as far as to commission a portrait of Mitchum, in full mititary costume as General Patton, to be used in the film, but also to make the role attractive to the actor. Mitchum turned the portrait, and the movie, down…for no other reason than acting the role was more strenuous an effort than he was willing to make, or ever would make again. And it was Mitchum who insisted that the role instead be offered to actor George C. Scott.
	While it cannot be accurately reported that he actively campaigned for the role, Ronald Reagan-by then better-known as the popular, and politically-conservative Republican governor of California-made it clear to Patton's producers, director, and studio that he was available to be lured back, with the right offer.
But, again, Ronald Reagan's participation in the project was politely, and quietly, declined. A B-Movie actor Ronald Reagan was, and a B-Movie actor he would remain.
	Anything else you wanna know?