Most Iconic Cameos That You Probably Missed
When you choose a movie to watch, you more or less know what you’re getting yourself into. You already know which actors to expect since they’re plastered all over the cover.
When you’re the star of a movie, you have almost two hours to make a lasting impression upon the audience.
But when you’ve been chosen for a cameo, first of all, it’s a big honor because it means you’re so cool that the directors know that the crowd will go wild when they see you pop into a scene, but also a cameo is super hard to do- you have to make a lasting impression and you only have about five minutes to do so.
Here are some of the best cameos that make us wish that short scene was just a liiiittle longer.
26. David Bowie in Zoolander
David Bowie is truly a legend and has done just about everything, so even though seeing him appear in Zoolander was surprising, it wasn’t entirely out of the blue.
What he is best known for is basically reinvigorating rock music in the ‘70, but he’s also done a lot more.
When Bowie agreed to a cameo in the movie Zoolander, Ben Stiller later admitted that he was “In shock” that he had actually said yes to it.
If you saw this movie you’ll remember scene where Bowie judged a fashion runway “walk-off” between Stiller’s Derek Zoolander and Owen Wilson’s rival male model Hansel McDonald.
25. Cate Blanchett in Hot Fuzz
The fact that Cate Blanchett is such an iconic actress that she doesn’t even need to show her full face for people to recognize her right away is honestly iconic, but apparently not everyone caught this cameo.
She’s still one of the most beautiful women in the world, even covered in a clean suit and a face mask.
When Blanchett played police investigator Janine, she jokingly said it was “exhausting”, saying that she spent “24 hours a day” fully ready in her forensic scientist suit just waiting for her super brief scene.
24. Michael Jackson in Men in Black II
It’s very rare that the “King of Pop” makes an appearance in the film industry, so it was pretty mind-blowing to see him appear in 2002’s Men in Black II.
The character that he plays is very fitting for Jackson and it could be an admittance of him being born on another planet.
He portrays an alien who is desperate to be made an official MIB agent, only to be told that they’re “still working on that alien affirmative action program”.
After all, you don’t just write a song like “Rock With You” without being from Mars.
23. Bruce Springsteen in High Fidelity
In the film adaption of Nick Hornby’s bestseller High Fidelity, John Cusack’s character was in desperate need of advice on the ladies.
So naturally, he chose the smoothest guy on the planet that has basically captured the hearts of ladies across the world for decades- Bruce Springsteen.
Who better to give relationship advice than a guy who ditched his wife to marry one of his backup singers?
This cameo was a one-off for the classic rock singer, but he has proved himself through appearances in comedy musical sketches on ‘Late Night With Jimmy Fallon”.
22. James Brown in Rocky IV
There’s just something so satisfying about seeing a singer, someone who is usually never seen in an acting role, taking part in a movie.
When the “The Godfather of Soul” himself made a casual appearance in the fourth installment of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky film franchise.
The song James Brown performs in the film, “Living in America” has since acquired an ironic meaning, since it played after Creed, Rocky’s friend, makes an ill-fated decision to fight the fearsome Soviet boxer, which ends up getting him killed in the ring.
21. Basically Everyone in Hollywood in Austin Powers in Goldmember
The idea of putting a ton of super famous celebrities has been done before and essentially dates back to Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, but this film was still an amusing surprise because it’s a big-budget movie-within-the-movie version of Austin Powers with an A-list cast and director.
Sure big names such as Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito were all headliners but there were also lots of unexpected actors such as Carrie Fisher playing a group therapist, unrecognizable John Travolta, police officer Katie Couric, the entire Osborne clan as themselves, FemBot Britney Spears, and even Steven Spielberg.
20. Madonna in Die Another Day
Sadly one of the least well-received James Bond movies of all time features Madonna where she gave a lackluster, overproduced rendition of the theme song, so it was pretty obvious for her to show up on set for a cameo.
Some of us also wish we could unhear her cheeky comment of Bond’s blade-bearing skills; “I see you handle your weapon well”.
It’s one thing to them and fools everyone into thinking you can act, but Madonna thinking she can fool us with her that English accent is just criminal.
19. Huey Lewis in Back to the Future
Lots of movies have soundtracks, but there are only a few that are superfluous with the film and stay relevant long after it’s release.
But 30 years on, the two defining songs of Back to The Future by Huey Lewis and the News are still living on.
When producer Steven Spielberg decided that the lead character Marty Mcfly’s favorite band would be Huey Lewis and the News, they knew what they had to do.
At first, Lewis was hesitant, but by the end, he agreed and even played the part of a nerdy school administrator.
18. Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man
Before Samuel L. Jackson become a total staple to every Marvel movie ever, the highest grossing actor of all time had to start somewhere in the franchise.
So when he showed up as Nick Fury on Iron Man, everybody basically lost it, but only those super fans who stuck around past the credits caught the sneaky cameo.
It may not seem like much now, but in 2008 his appearance was groundbreaking.
The crazy thing is, Jackson later reveals that the scene took a shockingly short amount of time; “ I was there maybe an hour and a half because I think at that time, I had my own mustache and goatee.”
17. Johnny Depp in 21 Jump Street
This live action film was the 2012 adoption of a goofy 1980s TV series where adult cops pretended to be high-school students in order to bust some drug cases.
Add an unlikely duo such as funny guy Jonah Hill and hotshot Channing Tatum and it’s bound to be a wild ride, throw in celebrities such as both of the Franco brothers, Brie Larson and even Ice Cube, but the most surprising of all would have to be an A-list celebrity who appeared way down the credits list- Johnny Depp.
16. Oprah Winfrey in Ocean’s 13
This cameo is basically movie-ception, complete with a scene of a TV host and all around superstar Oprah Winfrey plays the host on her own talk show.
This film is star studded with A-list celebrities such as the co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and Al Pacino.
One of the running jokes of the movie is that Ocean (Clooney) and Rusty (Pitt) have an obsession with The Oprah Winfrey Show, so they wanted to add a scene of the talk show and who better actress to play Oprah than herself.
15. George Harrison in Monty Python
George Harrison is known for well, being in the most famous boy-band of all time- The Beatles, but he also did a few other things before, after, and during Beatlemania.
If you weren’t paying laser focus attention to Monty Python’s classic “Life of Brian”, you might have missed George Harrison’s split-second appearance in the 1979’s film.
If this isn’t interesting enough, the Beatles member actually saved the film- a few days before production was to begin the funding disappeared, and Harrison got hold of a script and liked it so much that he donated $4 million of his own money to set the film into production.
14. Martin Scorsese in Taxi Driver
There have been many instances of directors making cameos in their own films, and it’s always interesting because they are always behind the scenes, they aren’t as easily recognizable as actors.
Martin Scorsese is regarded as one of the most significant and influencia; filmmakers in cinematic history, so we were all starstruck to learn that he made an appearance as a small part in his 1976 film “Taxi Driver”.
However, this wasn’t actually planned- actors George Memmoli had been cast to do the scene but he pulled out, causing Scorsese to fill in as a substitute.
13. David Hasselhoff in The Spongebob Movie
I never thought I’d see the name “David Hasselhoff” in the same sentence as “The Spongebob Movie”, but here we are.
This was a hilarious mash-up, and I bet fans of “The Hoff” would have had no clue that he made an appearance in the animated children’s T.V show, and I bet the kids watching Spongebob would have no idea who this lifeguard is.
Former “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff appears in one of the final scenes to come to the rescue of SpongeBob and Pateick, swimming the animal characters back to their home at Bikini Bottom.
12. Pamela Anderson in Borat
David Hasselhoff wasn’t the only former “Baywatch” star to score a cameo in a major motion picture, and it’s so fun to see the people that constantly graced our T.V’s back in the day make a comeback.
We all remember laughing and cringing while watching the comedy mockumentary “Borat”, and many scenes in the film were unscripted and improved by Sacha Baron Cohen himself, so it’s speculated whether the scene where the director pretends to kidnap Pamela Anderson was real or not.
A security guard later confirmed that it was indeed staged ahead of time, regardless, it was still hilarious.
11. Quentin Tarantino in Basically All His Movies
Quentin Tarantino is another director who loves having some sort of part in his films, other than everything he does behind-the-scenes of course.
He’s been in almost all of his own films- such as playing Jimmie in “Pulp Fiction”, Mr. Brown in “Reservoir Dogs”, and the Australian miner in “Django Unchained”, and many more.
Tarantino often steals the short scene that he’s in but sometimes he’s barely visible, like in “Kill Bill” where he plays one of the 88 masked ninjas, and occasionally he’s not even on screen like, for Jackie Brown, his voice was used for an answering machine message.
10. Ryan Seacrest in Knocked Up
This cameo gave us a true insight of Ryan Seacrest’s personality, he was willing to be in on a joke even though it was directed at him which only tells us how cool of a dude he is.
In Judd Apatow’s 2007 hit “Knocked Up”, Seacrest plays an overly arrogant and buffoonish version of himself.
He totally roasts Katherine Heigl’s character, cursing at her declaring, “I’m more famous than half the people we talk to anyway!”.
The “American Idol” staple later said in an interview, “I don’t mind being the butt of the joke…It doesn’t really bother me. I quite enjoy it.”
9. Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
The former “Doogie Howser, M.D.” star made a totally unexpected appearance in the 2004 stoner comedy, which essentially paved the way for his subsequent role in “How I Met Your Mother”.
His straight-edge image was erased with this cameo as he played an ecstasy-fueled hitchhiker, picked up en route to the fast food restaurant, and gives many references to drugs and crass talk about women.
This was the type of character they were looking for when casting for Barney Stinson, so the well-received cameo has been credited with leading him to that famous role.
8. Leonard Nimoy in “Star Trek: Into Darkness”
This has got to be one of the most satisfying cameos in history which drove fans of the “Star Trek” franchise absolutely wild. Actor Leonard Nimoy is best known for playing Mr. Spock in “Star Trek”, and his passing in 2015 saddened hearts around the world.
Before he went, he left fans with a satisfying good-bye- in the 2013 film Nimoy makes an appearance to advise Zachary Quinto’s younger Spock on how to deal with treacherous villain Khan.
The film franchise went full circle and left us with an iconic collision of the old and new “Star Trek”.
7. Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder
We all recognize heart-throb Tom Cruise for always being a badass, good-looking, and well dressed character in almost every movie he plays in, so when he appeared in Tropic Thunder as Les Grossman, a sleazy studio executive.
Not only did he completely invent the character by himself, he almost got an entire movie centering around that character because people liked it so much.
Grossman has been ranked among Cruise’s best characters ever, and explained how he came to play the part; “I said, ‘Look, I’d love to play this character, but I want to have fat hands and I’m gonna dance’”.
6. Bill Murray in Zombieland
“Oh my God, I can’t believe I shot Bill Murray”, Jesse Eisenberg’s character exclaims.
To say that this cameo came as a surprise would be the understatement of a century and had everybody gagging. “Zombieland” came out in 2009, and we were all shocked when Bill Murray suddenly appeared as a fictional survivor version of himself.
Murray came to be cast for the part when the script had originally been written with no celebrity, but they decided to change it last minute and turned to Woody Harrelson for advice.
He suggested Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray, but Hoffman couldn’t do it and Murray said yes.
5. Alfred Hitchcock in Basically All His Movies
Alfred Hitchcock is a film director and producer that is “widely regarded as one of the most influential and extensively studied filmmakers in the history of cinema.”
A feature that is iconic to his films are his blink and you might miss it cameo appearances in his own work.
These short glimpses of the elusive director became his signature, and fans made a sport of seeing whether they could spot him or not.
Hitchcock inserted himself in many random scenes throughout 37 of his films, alongside big celebrities such as Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. How many of them did you catch?
4. Alfred Hitchcock in Basically All His Movies
There are some of our favorite Hitchcock cameos that are worth noting- his first confirmed cameo was in North by Northwest where he is shown getting a bus door slammed in his face, just as director credits with his name flash across the scene, shown above.
Another great cameo in Hitchcock’s romantic thriller To Catch a Thief, which is where the photo above of Grace Kelly and Cary Grant was taken from.
John Robie escapes the police by feigning a getaway in his car and boarding a bus instead where he sits right down next to none other than Hitchcock himself.
3. Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein
Gene Hackman is an Academy Award-winning actor known for his versatility in films, ranging from the 1978 Superman and headlining Francis Ford Coppola’s intense The Conversation.
But one cameo that really stuck out was his role as an absurd blind priest in his lone Young Frankenstein scene, making for one of the funniest scenes in film history.
What’s even crazier is how Hackman got the part- he wanted to give comedy a go so he asked his friend and tennis partner Gene Wilder whether there was something in the script for him. Wilder then referred him to director Mel Brooks, and the rest is history.
2. Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction
If there’s one actor that can completely transform a scene and add intensity, compassion, and weirdness to it, look no further. Christopher Walken is another actor with an incredible range, and not many actors could appear in all the versatile roles that he has.
He only appears in one scene in Pulp Fiction but it’s an unforgettable one, as Captain Koons. Walken shared in an interview; “I’m never in character […] No matter what character I’m playing, it’s me.” He explains further; “I’m the only person in my life that I can refer to.”
1. Steven Spielberg in The Blues Brothers’
This iconic film was the very first movie to star Saturday Night Live performers in characters that they originated on the show. The film is filled with tons of A-list celebrities, from Carrie Fisher to director Frank Oz, to famous music artists such as James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, but the most interesting cameo has got to be director and producer Steven Spielberg.
Jaws director appears near the end of the film as the office clerk who works at the Cook County Assessor’s Office.