Who was not considered for the part of Captain Benjamin L. Willard in the film 'Apocalypse Now'?

Paul Newman was not considered for the role as Captain Benjamin L. Willard in the film 'Apocalypse Now'.

Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film directed, produced, and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola. It was co-written by John Milius with narration written by Michael Herr. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne, and Dennis Hopper. The screenplay, written by Milius, adapts the story of Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness, changing its setting from late nineteenth-century Congo to the Vietnam War.

Steve McQueen was Coppola's first choice to play Willard, but the actor did not accept because he did not want to leave America for 17 weeks. Al Pacino was also offered the role but he too did not want to be away for that long a period of time and was afraid of falling ill in the jungle as he had done in the Dominican Republic during the shooting of The Godfather Part II. Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, and James Caan were approached to play either Kurtz or Willard. Tommy Lee Jones, Keith Carradine, Nick Nolte, and Frederic Forrest were also considered for the role of Willard.