Howard Stern was offered Sam Elliott’s part in A Star Is Born

Last Updated on November 29, 2023

In a career that spans nearly six decades, it might be surprising that Sam Elliott has only been nominated for one Oscar: Best Supporting Actor for A Star Is Born. But if producer-director-writer-star Bradley Cooper had gotten his way right off the bat, it would have been Howard Stern co-starring in A Star Is Born. Surely there would have been more farts…

Appearing on The Howard Stern Show, the (former?) shock jock remembered being pitched the role of Bobby Maine, the older brother to Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine in A Star Is Born. “You came to me and you said, ‘Hey, you will play my brother…And I went, ‘Whoa, he must think I’m a lot better looking than… They’re gonna be like, ‘What the f*ck, what is it, this movie gonna be like Twins?’ I’m Danny DeVito and he’s Arnold Schwarzenegger or something? I dunno, what the hell’s going on here?”

Howard Stern has kept pretty secret about his brush with A Star Is Born, also telling Cooper,  “I’ve told two or three people in my life that you offered me that role in A Star Is Born, and they look at me like, ‘What the f*ck, you didn’t do it?’…And I go, ‘No, I think the guy who ended up doing the role was fantastic!’” That guy, of course, was Sam Elliott – and now you might be picturing him in other Elliott roles, sitting alongside The Dude at a bowling alley or having a showdown at the O.K. Corral –hey, at least he’d look better in a cowboy hat than Imus.

As it turns out, Howard Stern was actually seriously considering taking the role. As Cooper recalled, “You said, ‘Give me a couple weeks.’ It wasn’t like you said no right away. I feel like there were three weeks of me sort of standing by, right? You really contemplated this…When we started talking about you shaving your head, that was very exciting.” Right, because that’s totally not a wig!

Despite given himself the nickname King of All Media, Howard Stern’s cinematic output has been extremely limited, only ever appearing on the big screen in a prominent role as himself in Private Parts, which still stands as one of the best jobs anybody has ever done at playing themselves. He has also reportedly been tied to the lead in Man of the Year, the Billy Bob Thornton role in School for Scoundrels, Andrew Dice Clay vehicle The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (interestingly, Dice is in A Star Is Born), and more. Now here’s hoping that his Doctor Doom movie is as dead as his radio show.

Could you see Howard Stern taking on a serious role on the big screen? Or should he just stick to radio? Give us your take below!