Steven Spielberg forgot he cut David Harbor from War of the Worlds

By /dec. July 6, 2022 9:02 PM EST

David Harbor may not have been a well-known actor in 2005, but his career has accelerated since 1999 with several critically acclaimed performances on and off Broadway. At 6'3", he had a solid and formidable presence. He could use that hulking frame to his advantage or play against him to sympathetic or pathetic effect. When you're this good in New York, you're guaranteed at least a role in "Law & Order"; Harbor booked three. When he made himself available for films, he nailed four roles within a year of each other. One of them was that Tom Cruise's bar buddy in Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds." If you have trouble remembering his character, let me help you: he was cut from the final cut of the film.

These things happen. Just ask Kevin Costner. Or Tom Scharpling. When the film is edited together and your character only exists to provide a bit of backstory and/or emotional shadow for the protagonist of a scene, you're probably destined for the editing room. Harbor made peace with that. Or so he thought.

In an interview with Kevin Polowy of Yahoo!, Harbor admitted that he had a strong suspicion that he was not doing the final cut. The scene in question reveals why Tom Cruise's docker dad is late to pick up his son in the morning: he's working the graveyard crew and heading to the bar for a few after-work drinks with his pal at eight o'clock in the morning. "It wasn't a big scene," Harbor says. "It also wasn't a necessary scene for the movie at all... And we shot it, and I remember thinking it was probably going to be cut, but Spielberg was there and it was so exciting to meet him. . He cast me. And then, you know, it just got cut, but it never made it back to the movie."

Delete it and move on, right?

Harbour did just that until he landed a role in Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary Road" three years later. The prestige drama starred Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio and was co-financed by Spielberg's DreamWorks Pictures. Mendes had won an Oscar for DreamWorks in 1999, so it only made sense for the legendary filmmaker to keep an eye on the production. A little later, Harbor ran into Spielberg at a table read for another film. The director approached him and inadvertently stomped on his heart. According to Harbour, "[H]e was just 'Oh, David, I just wanna say I really love you on 'Revolutionary Road.' I think you are just wonderful. We are so happy. I would really like to work with you one day. And I didn't mention the fact that we had worked together before and that he had cut...