Kevin Peter Hall was the man inside the Predator costume. He was also the eponymous bigfoot Harry from Harry & the Hendersons. These two movies were released one week apart in June 1987. In April 1987, he was on the short list of actors to play Data as well as the short list for Geordi La Forge. Had the Black actor been cast in either role, both the franchise and the actor's personal life may have been much, much different.
That the producers were considering Hall means that Data could have been a much different character. His 7'2" (2.2m) height may have spun the character in totally different ways. He may have been considered a much bigger threat by many, but may have drawn comparisons to something like Iron Giant. There is also his race to consider. By putting a Black actor in the role of Data, it could have opened up more discussions about race and servitude. Measure of a Man would have been much more on the nose.
Casting Hall as Geordi doesn't open a Pandora's Box in quite the same way. The show would have lost Burton's star power. He was arguably the best known actor of the TNG cast when it began. Kids and their parents would have loved him on PBS' Reading Rainbow, but he was seared into the public consciousness as Kunta Kinte from Roots. It does make Geordi a very tall man, and it could be interesting how that might intersect with his blindness.
Had he been cast in either role, the character wouldn't have made it through the entire run of the series. In 1990, Hall was in a near-fatal car accident. He died on April 10, 1991, from AIDS-related pneumonia. Most sources claim he contracted HIV through a contaminated blood transfusion following his car accident, but some argue that screenings of donated blood at the time makes it unlikely, but not impossible.
In any case, had those outside forces still exerted themselves, whichever TNG character Hall played would have been gone from the show in one fashion or another. That means Season 4 is largely without Data or Geordi. "Brothers" and "Data's Day" are two episodes that could have been wiped from existence. "Galaxy's Child" and "Identity Crisis" are the big Geordi episodes that could have been impacted.
If Hall played Data, who becomes second officer and sits at ops? Geordi? Worf? If it's Worf, do we get a new tactical officer or does it got to a rotating actor like what happened at the helm? If Hall played Geordi or Geordi gets moved t
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The Man In The Monster Suits
Whether alien Predator or lovable Bigfoot, Kevin Peter Hall keeps thinking big.
By Marc Shapiro
Kevin Peter Hall is easily the most unrecognized recognized actor in the business. He has starred in blockbuster movies in which nobody has seen his face, yet he’s mobbed in supermarkets and airports “because of a guest shot I did on TV’s Night Court and a season on 227.
“It’s ironic,” says Hall as he settles his 7’2 frame into a dressing room chair during a lunch break from a typical long day on the set of the new ’Harry and the Hendersons’ TV series. “People know me because I play the monsters, but I’m most recognized from the small roles in which they see my face. None of that stuff really bothers me. Whether I’m recognized in or out og a costume isn’t a kind of pressure I put myself through anymore.”
Nevertheless, it’s a good thing Hall has come to grips with his identity for, as the actor slugs it out in the first of a projected 72 ’Harry’ episodes, the easygoing Hall is up to his neck in creature assignments. Besides this TV job, Hall, who recently beat Los Angeles into submission in ’PREDATOR 2’, has a commitment for at least two more ’Predator’ films.
“Which is just as well, chuckles the actor. “I’m a newlywed and I’ve got kids. I don’t have time to look for other parts.”
Hall, whose costume and non-costume credits include the movie version of ’Harry and the Hendersons‘, ’Prophecy’, the forgettable ’Monster in the Closet’, and ’Misfits of Science’ (which he discussed in STARLOG #101), claims that he definitely had a change of heart regarding the ever-widening array of creature assignments.
“When I first came to California, it was fun and exciting to get any part in any movie and get paid for it. Because of my size and my background, it seemed like I was right for just about everything. I did go through a period where I thought it was time to give up monster movies. But then the scripts and the effects started getting better. I was treated better and started getting paid more.”
“Doing creatures these days is more of a job than it was for me in the beginning. In the early days, I was creating these creaturs and basically getting lost in them. Now, with creatures like Harry an
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