I honestly think that Orlando Bloom was cast to be the bit of talent all the girls can melt over BUT though the movie Legolas is not realy what I imagined from the book I think Orlando did a fantastic job, hes a geat actor not just a pretty boy and will probably be one of the biggest stars of the next decade.
Viggo was just about perfect as Aragorn and it hard now to see how anybody else could have played him (especialy not vin diesel) but that is true for all the characters now, McKellan was amazing as Gandalf even if Christopher Lee had Tolkiens blessing to play the grey pilgrim he was perfect for Saruman.
No Richard Harris I don't think would've been as good as Sir Ian McKellen.
And Christopher Lee was the only person of the Cast of LotR that has MET Tolkien. And Christopher Lee would send letters to Tolkien and one day he asked if he could perform as Gandalf, and Tolkien responded that he had given his blessing for Christopher Lee to do so.
you know your stuff 馃檪 Bernerd Hill (Theoden) didn't really want to, but they asked him to try out for Gandalf, and he did, with little expression, and they were thinking "this guy is hopeless" thankfully they cast him as Theoden 馃檪 I can't imagine anyone else as anyone in the movies...besides Liv....I don't know why, I have this thing against her now, I guess cause they uped her part in the movies