Turns out the rumors are true: David Bowie did audition for the Lord of the Rings. Actor Dominic Monaghan, who played the hobbit Merry in the series, says that he saw Bowie at the casting office while he was in London auditioning.
"I was at the Hubbard's, which is a pretty notorious casting agency office in London, doing an audition for Lord of the Rings, and when it ended I went over and talked to John Hubbard, who was running the audition, and he said, 'Hey, it went really well. You should wait around for five or 10 min. We'll give you some feedback,'" Monaghan said. "I thought, 'Oh, OK, cool, and I sat in the reception office. As I was reading a magazine waiting, David Bowie came in and signed his little list and went in. I'm assuming he read for Gandalf. I can't think of anything else he would've read for."
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