Other than Anthony Hopkins, what actor was considered for the role of Hannibal Lecter in the 1991 film?

Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a character created by novelist Thomas Harris. Lecter is a serial killer who eats his victims. Before his capture, he was a respected forensic psychiatrist. After his incarceration, he is consulted by FBI agents Clarice Starling and Will Graham to help them find other serial killers. Lecter had a large role in "The Silence of the Lambs", the 1991 film adaptation that starred Anthony Hopkins as Lecter, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. Hopkins reprised the role for the 2001 adaptation of the 1999 novel "Hannibal", which sees Lecter evading recapture, and for a second adaptation of "Red Dragon" in 2002.

Hopkins, the actor most closely identified with the character, said he played Lecter as "ultra sane, very still ... He has such terrifying physical power, and he doesn't waste an ounce of energy. He's so contained. He’s all brain. He is a dispassionate, brilliant machine, superb at logic, deficient in emotions." Hopkins further described Lecter as the "Robin Hood of killers", who kills "the terminally rude."

Several other actors who were considered for the role of Lecter include Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Derek Jacobi, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Sean Connery. Hopkins accepted the offer to play the role only after the film's director Jonathan Demme originally approached Connery and was turned down.