I read the book and then searched for the movie, but dint watch as the actors dint come close to my imagination of the characters. I was compelled to do my own casting.. As...
John Galt - Leonardo DiCaprio
Francisco d'anconia - Christian Bale
Ragnar Danneskjold - Brat Pitt/James Franco
Hank Rearden - Daniel Day Lewis
Hugh Akston - Robert D Neiro/Clint Eastwood
Eddie Willers - Chris Evans/Liam Hemsworth
Dagny Taggart - Jessica beil/ Amy Adams
Middas Mulligan - Robert Downey Jr

Burt Lancaster doesn't seem mean-spirited enough to play Jim Taggart. I'd sooner cast him as Dr. Robert Stadler. (With Kirk Douglas--who has played a few nasties in his career--as Floyd Ferris.)

But maybe I'd want to cast Donald Pleasence as Stadler, and Peter Cushing as Floyd Ferris.

Ahhh. One of my favorite diversions.

Herewith my dream cast [Dr. Who time machine required]:

Dagny Taggart: Lauren Bacall. Or a young Kate Hepburn without the Connecticut accent.

Henry Rearden: Humphrey Bogart [and not just to keep Betty Bacall company].

John Galt: Clint Eastwood

Francisco d'Anconia: Pierce Brosnan, who has the dark looks to be a convincing D'Anconia.

Ragnar Danneskjöld: a young Eric Braeden [remember Rat Patrol?] or Peter Graves

Lillian Rearden: Patricia Neal

Mother Rearden: Joan Crawford

Hugh Akston: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

Midas Mulligan: Edward G. Robinson

Robert Stadler: Armin Shimmerman

Floyd Ferris: Bradford Dillman

Jim Taggart: Burt Lancaster

Cheryl Taggart: Keira Knightley

That's a different thread...

I hadn't heard he wanted out. But I have to say his performance was not up to standard.

Of course. He wanted out, and the audience wasn't buying him as Bond. If he has delivered the same performance as Bond that he did as Philip in The Lion in Winter, he would have OWNED the role

I get it. You're thinking of Katharine Hepburn as Aunt Vi in "Suddenly, Last Summer." Yes, now that you think of it...!

He showed weakness when he refused to disembark from the Comet and ended up lying across the tracks in front of the forever-disabled locomotive. That wasn't realistic. Sometimes you have to let it go. He didn't realize that. It cost him his life.

The Atlas Productions producers literally cut that scene out and suggested that the Galt's Gulch Air and Land Militia (Ragnar Danneskjöld, commanding) laid on a special rescue mission for him, in addition to their rescue of John Galt.

I had a better idea: Eddie leaves for San Francisco, all right--planning all along to leave the Comet in Phoenix, Arizona, and seek out Dan Conway, former head of the Phoenix-Durango Railroad. When the Comet breaks down out of Flagstaff, he suggests to the wagon-train captain to ride for Phoenix. On their way they meet a helicopter posse, led by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, who has declared his own independent State immediately after the Taggart Bridge collapse caused the federal rats to jump ship.

Katharine Hepburn would be perfect!

I never thought of Eddie as weak. He seemed to be rational but not genius. That's realistic.

Agreed. But there was a reason he was out and Pierce Brosnan was in.

No, my fave as Mother Rearden is Angela Lansbury. Remember her in "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962)? That's why.

I think the early Connery could give Craig a run for his money - but I do just shiver with the perfect casting that is Craig now. I once read that Bond was the kind of character who, were it necessary, would cut a kitten in half with a dull knife. and you can't take double firsts at Oxford if you're average or a slacker, so there has to be an agile intelligence at work.
I do have to put in ONE, I promise only 1, kudo for Timothy Dalton as Bond - near the end of License to Kill, when he flicked the lighter on - that was perfection.

I have the same [self-imposed] limitation. I refuse to watch |federally approved| junk, so I don't much, any more. But we have all of movie history to play with.
I'd like to see Katharine Hepburn, appropriately made up and costumes, as Mother Rearden.
I'm kind of pondering Sean Connery as Ragnar - he shows that ruthless brilliance that it takes.l

Jolie? Not the look at ALL. But then I've never seen her as beautiful. She doesn't have the right bone structure.

the ultimate smooth Latin guy, and gorgeous to boot. He was always who I saw when I was reading the book the first, or second, or...times. But looking back, I'm not sure I ever saw that arrogance that Rand gives him - the idea that, even though you never saw it, he always had a cape waving behind him.
I liked Esai Morales, but I didn't get to see him do part 3, so I can't say if I'd go there.

Seeing as we are going for dead persons, I nominate DIANA HYLAND for Dagny. Played the mother in Eight is Enough on TV many years ago? All I could think of was Dagney Taggert when watching her.

Jer, why do you see yourself as an Eddie rather than a Hank? I am curious because I have wondered where I fit.

Honestly, I never thought about the race of the characters. It just wasn't relevant.

Sean Penn doesn't strike me as a whiner.

I love her but she's too old.

I was thinking of James Spader for him.

John Galt: Jim Caveziel.

The question--almost an objection--I had was that the Eddie of the book was a truly weak man. He told the truth, all right, but he never make the leap to acting on it. I had the sense that John Galt grew disappointed in him.