Actor John Rhys-Davies is known for his role as Gimli, the dwarf warrior in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The loud-mouthed elf hater is played to perfection by the Welsh actor in the fantasy-adventure films. Rhys-Davies was nominated along with the rest of the cast for the Screen Actors Guild Award and won for The Return of the King.
While the actor has played other roles in his career, he is also most well-known for playing Sallah, the Egyptian friend of Indiana Jones in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones films. Rhys-Davies was reportedly not the first choice for the role and the description reportedly needed a much shorter person. However, Rhys-Davies’ remark reportedly led Spielberg to change the character to suit the actor.
John Rhys-Davies Was Not The First Choice To Play Sallah In Indiana Jones
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas reportedly developed Indiana Jones as a tribute to the adventure shows that they grew up watching as kids. Lucas reportedly conceived the idea after he saw a poster of an old movie that reminded him of films of his childhood such as Buck Rogers and Zorro’s Fighting Legion (via Movie Fone ).
The duo reportedly wanted to portray a more realistic American hero, who would be vulnerable but was still up for the adventure. Spielberg and Lucas zeroed in on Harrison Ford, who had already worked with the latter as Han Solo in Star Wars. While the duo first wanted Tom Selleck, the actor became unavailable after being offered Magnum P.I. (via Empire).
While they confirmed their main character, the makers wanted strong supporting roles as the films they were obsessed with as kids always had rich supporting characters. Hence, characters such as Sallah and Belloq were created. While Lord of the Rings star John Rhys-Davies has been synonymous with the role, Steven Spielberg reportedly had someone else in mind first. He said to Empire,
“Sallah was originally written as a Sam Jaffe or Gunga Din type – almost a small creature from the Star Wars cantina in an earthbound adventure film. I had originally offered the part to Danny DeVito, who wanted to do it but couldn’t fit it around his schedule for Taxi.”
However, due to the Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia star’s busy schedule, the team ultimately zeroed in on Rhys-Davies, who had just gotten recognition due to his appearance in Shōgun (1980).
Steven Spielberg Had Change Sallah’s Character After Approaching John Rhys-Davies
As Steven Spielberg mentioned, the role of Sallah was reportedly based on classic helper characters such as the eponymous Indian water carrier in Rudyard Kipling’s poem Gunga Din. The character was reportedly short-statured and had to be Egyptian as Indiana Jones as the gang traveled to Cairo in search of the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
However, there was one problem when Spielberg and the team found a potential Sallah. John Rhys-Davies was neither as short as the script had mentioned nor was he Egyptian. The actor was of Welsh descent. Hence, when he was offered the role with the script, the Lord of the Rings star reportedly made a snarky remark. He told Empire,
“I went to see him and said, ‘Well, look, it says here that Sallah is a 5′ 2″ skinny Egyptian Bedouin. Are you proposing surgery?’ He said, ‘No, I want you to do something between that character you played in Shogun and Falstaff.’ I thought, ‘Ah, this is interesting.’”
Still, Steven Spielberg reportedly had to make changes to the character of Sallah to fit Rhys-Davies. The actor has since been synonymous with the role and the character has become a pop cultural milestone.
All the Indiana Jones films are currently streaming on Disney Plus.
