Tuned down George C. Scott's Oscar-winning role in Patton (1970) because he didn't want to glorify war. Steiger later admitted he had made a big mistake.
Was not the first choice to play the role of Sheriff Gillespie in the 1967 Best Picture Academy Award-winner In the Heat of the Night (1967), for which Steiger won the Best Actor Oscar. The part was first offered to George C. Scott, who accepted, according to producer Walter Mirisch's memoir "I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History." Scott backed out when his wife Colleen Dewhurst wanted him to direct her in a play on Broadway. Ironically, Steiger later turned down the lead in Patton (1970) that went to Scott, which brought him his own Best Actor Oscar.
Won the part of Viktor Komarovsky in Doctor Zhivago (1965) only after two other actors turned the part down. After a month went by with Marlon Brando failing to respond to director David Lean's written inquiry into whether he wanted to play Komarovsky, Lean offered the part to James Mason, who was a generation older than Brando, because he did not want an actor who would overpower the character of Yuri Zhivago (specifically, to show Zhivago up as a lover of Lara, who would be played by the young Julie Christie, which the charismatic Brando might have done, shifting the sympathy of the audience). Mason initially accepted thee part, but eventually dropped out and Steiger was given the role.