Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid the Sundance Kid's character before. Other actors considered for the role of Sundance were Steve McQueen and Warren Beatty, who both turned it down, with Beatty claiming that the film was too similar to "Bonnie and Clyde". According to Goldman, McQueen and Newman both read the scripts at the same time and agreed to do the film. McQueen eventually backed out of the film due to disagreements with Newman. The two actors would eventually team up in the 1974 disaster film "The Towering Inferno". The world premiere of the movie was in September 1969, at the Roger Sherman Theater, in
The High and the Mighty (film) sequels (along with the "Airplane!" parodies, the first of which featured Stack lampooning himself). "The High and the Mighty" served as a template for later disaster-themed films such as the "Airport" series (1970–79), "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972), "The Towering Inferno" (1974), "The Hindenburg" (1975), and "Titanic" (1997). The film was one of Wayne's co-productions in which he also starred, a practice which would not become widespread until the 1980s and 1990s. "The High and the Mighty" had its premiere in Hollywood at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on May 27, 1954. It was commercially released on July 3, 1954. Although the choice