1 Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow was originally cast as Roz in Frasier but was fired before the pilot was shot because she had a personality too close to “Daphne”. She would land a spot on F.R.I.E.N.D.S. next year.
2. Canadian actor Michael Bublé was fired from the set of The X-Files for stealing a hotdog from craft services.
3. Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the Predator but was fired for several reasons, including that he really wanted the Predator to kickbox.
4. Melora Hardin (Jan from the office) was originally cast to play Jennifer Parker in Back to the Future. She was fired after they recast Marty because she was taller than Michael J. Fox.
5. Dan Aykroyd had JT Walsh fired from Loose Cannons (1990) after finding out he acted in the John Belushi biopic Wired (1989). The delay in production cost $125,000.
6 David Herman
Actor David Herman (Michael Bolton from the movie “Office Space”) got himself fired from MADtv by screaming all his lines during the read-through. Apparently, he wanted to leave the show to do other projects, but Fox would not let him out of his contract.
7. Fitness model Christian Boeving starred in the documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster* about the use of steroids in America. He said he had a testosterone prescription from his doctor. For this, he was fired by his sponsor MuscleTech, which has a policy against disclosing steroid use publicly.
8. English journalist Piers Morgan was fired as the editor of a popular British newspaper in 2004 after publishing fake photos of the torture of Iraqi prisoners by British soldiers.
9. Rick Moranis was fired from the set of The Breakfast Club after he kept playing the janitor as a goofy Russian character.
10. Suzanne Somers was fired from tv series Three’s Company when she asked to be paid equally to costar John Ritter.
11 Sebastian Bach
Sebastian Bach was fired from Skid Row because he wanted to open for KISS and the band refused. After he was canned he left the band a voicemail saying that nobody is ever too big to open for KISS.
12. American actor Gilbert Gottfried was fired from voicing the Aflac duck after he tweeted out a series of jokes about the earthquake disaster of Japan in 2011. Aflac does 75% of its business in Japan.
13. Bobby Keys, a sax player (and Keith Richards’ best friend) was fired from the Rolling Stones 1973 tour after being found in a bathtub filled with Dom Perignon champagne. The cost of the champagne was deducted from his pay and he made no money from the tour.
14. TV show host Marc Summers went public about his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, causing him to be fired as host of the Hollywood Squares revival, and is in remission for chronic lymphatic leukemia.
15. Chris Farley was fired from SNL for making late-night prank phone calls from the SNL offices with Adam Sandler, and mooning people from a limo shortly after. He once even once defecated out a window. He was known to frequently get naked and do various stunts for laughs.
16 James May
English television presenter James May was fired from Autocar magazine after he put a hidden message using the initial letter on each page. The secret message read out the following: “SO YOU THINK IT’S REALLY GOOD, YEAH? YOU SHOULD TRY MAKING THE BLOODY THING UP. IT’S A REAL PAIN IN THE ARSE.”
17. Rock group “The Pretenders” fired bass guitarist Pete Farndon due to his drug habits in June 1982. Two days later guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died as a result of cocaine intolerance. In April 1983 Farndon drowned in the bath at his home in London, after overdosing on heroin.
18. Pro Wrestler King Kong Bundy was fired from the WWF for acting in Headstart Explorer computer commercials without their approval.
19. Liam Neeson was once a school teacher but got fired because a student pulled a knife on him, and Neeson punched him.
20. Nicki Minaj worked as a waitress at a Red Lobster in the Bronx but was fired for discourtesy to customers. She said she was fired from “at least 15 jobs” for similar reasons.
15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
21 Chris Hansen
Chris Hansen, who was the host of “NBC’s Dateline: To Catch a Predator” (a show that featured him conducting a sting operation on online sex predators by catching them on hidden cameras), was fired from NBC after he was caught cheating on his wife by a hidden-camera sting operation.
22. Jimi Hendrix played guitar in Little Richard’s band until he was fired for being too flamboyant, out-dressing, and upstaging the singer.
23. Tupac Shakur was fired from the movie Menace II Society because he had an argument with Director Allen Hughes which led to a fistfight. Shakur was later found guilty of assault and battery.
24. Bill Hader worked at a movie theater in college and was fired for telling rude customers how “Titanic” ended.
25. In 1981, a 27-year-old James Cameron was working as a director on Pirhana II, when he was fired for failing to get a close-up of the lead actress. He then got food poisoning and during his illness had a nightmare about a robot sent from the future to kill him, which became the idea for “The Terminator.”