Badmovies.org Forum

Seems to me that this subject comes up now and then, but it has been on my mind lately.

Ever watch a film and suddenly, unexpectedly encounter an actor or actress?  You stare at the screen, saying to yourself, "No way is that so-and-so."  Then, the truth hits you and you ask, "What are you doing in this movie?"

Sextette (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/sextette/)
You are thinking I am going to mention half the cast, but I am not.  The most unlikely person, and in the most unlikely situation, is Alice Cooper as the terribly dressed hotel staff member, sitting down at a piano and singing while the other staff dance in the background.

Breakin' (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/breakin/)
Jean-Claude Van Damme in a black leotard out of nowhere!

Evil Spawn (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/evilspawn/)
John Carradine and I kept worrying he would fall over dead before the scene ended.

Jacker II (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/jackerii/)
It's Veronica from "Clerks!"

Pranks - Really lousy slasher film from 1982 with Daphne Zuniga as a fodder victim.
Mark Of The Devil - Udo Kier as the main actor.  I kept saying, I know that guy from vampire movies. 

Thats a few I can think of off the top of my head.  You could count Lemmy from Motorhead in several of Troma's films. 

I often run into this question when it comes to voice overs.  Like John Hurt in Watership Down.  It was one of those "I know that voice" kind of things. 

I remeber seeing SidHaig pop up as a judge in JACKIE BROWN. Also noticed his name on a door buzzer button in same movie.Kinda like a nod to all the movies Sid and Pam Grier did together in the 70's.
Seeing Ted Knight at the end of PSYCHO(1960) as the cop who brings Norman/Mother a blanket in the rubber room.
I remeber seeing Chris Lee show up as Dracula(!) in Peter Sellers the MAGIC CHRISTIAN(1968)."Wow! It's Chris Lee!"
Joe Besser,who did a brief stint in the 3 Stooges after Shemp passed away,being killed by a deformed Jon Agar in HAND of DEATH! THAT was a wonderful experiance,cuz compared to Curly and Shemp,Joe really sucked.

Actually that was her first movie and it was released as The Dorm That Dripped Blood; Pranks was an alternative title that was used later. That is a common point that has cropped up in several lousy reviews of Dorm for lack of anything original to say about the movie. Daphne Zuniga had a few hits in the early 80s and has been a second string actress ever since largely doing guest roles on TV shows; she is exactly the kind of actress I would expect to see in a slasher movie.

I think a more unlike pair to have starred in a slasher movie, at the time, was Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - The Next Generation.

Since I am bringing up TCM, how about Viggo Mortensen in Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3.

I would mention Dennis Hopper, but I fully expect to see him in b-movies.

Just watched to films yesterday and today that we said the exact same thing.

Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) plays the French driver in TALLADEGA NIGHTS.

Terry Funk has a non-speaking part in THE RINGER as a thug.

I always snort when I see Sylvester Stallone come on board the subway in "Bananas" --
Re.  "Magic Christian" -- note both John Cleese AND Graham Chapman in separate scenes, only 3 years pre-Python --
Bob Hope as an uncredited taxi driver in some Alan Ladd/Lucille Ball film noir that used to play endlessly on Virginia weekend TV --
peter johnson/denny crane

The wrestling world doesn't seem that far apart from Johnny Knoxville's realm of Jackass and his cohorts in "dangerous behavior for attention" or the affection for the odd, misfits, and underdogs the Farrelly Bros. have displayed. So Terry Funk seem like a good fit, to me anyway.

Zellweger and McConaughey happened to make that film around the time they broke big in other films. IIRC it got a small release and was shelved originally. It got a retitling and a video release to capitalize on their new found fame.

Sylvester Stallone as the subway thug in Bananas. I was typing this before Peter posted. Also include seeing Harrison Ford in Deadh Heat on a Merry Go Round. Big name in a bit part, funny to think how far they would go, and how many others in similar roles are never heard of again.

George Raft in the 60s spoof version of Casino Royale. So popular once that his stance and coin flip were staples of Warner Bros. cartoons, but nowadays his appearance and the significance have to be explained. When I first saw the film as a kid, I knew I was supposed to know who he was, but didn't make the connection until the credits. He was a second hand pop culture reference for me then.

Brian Cox in Super Troopers. A Paycheck's a paycheck, but I usually associate him with more high-brow and serious fare, especially when he works in American films. I wouldn't think of him in comedies too often.  Then again he's in The Ringer as well.

Zsa Zsa Gabor in Touch of Evil. I know many of the small roles were filled by friends of Welles as something of a lark, but she's distracting - just wrong wrong wrong.

Denise Richards in a twofer. First in a bit part on "Saved By The Bell" as a girl who fakes drowning to get rescued by Slater, seeing a semi-big name in a very early role. Also in the film Edmond based on David Mamet play as a stripper/hooker. The second film seems kind of out of her league considering most of the name cast also it. What makes it worse is seeing both parts, she has always been an awful actress, and has gotten little better after all this time. Woe is her when her looks go.

Not a movie, but several years ago there was an orange juice commercial where the the parents were trying to get the son to drink his orange juice telling him it was good for him, but the boy refused until he heard it from a voice of authority he trusted, like actor Robert Loggia. Bam! Robert Loggia appears and reassures the boy that OJ was good for him. First I was wondering, "What kid even knows who the hell Robert Loggia is? Then considering his tough guy roles I wondered why he didn't work the kid over for getting lippy with his parents. The whole commercial seemed really odd and old-fashioned, but the appearance of Loggia as a name we all (including kids under the age of 12) should know, respect, and trust was the capper.

* STEVE MCQUEEN in "Dixie Dynamite," a low-budget 1970s car chase movie.

* ALBERT FINNEY in "The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother," with Gene Wilder and Marty Feldman

* JAMES WOODS in "The Way We Were," with Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford

* ROBERT ENGLUND in any movie where he doesn't play Freddy Krueger

For some reason, Albert Finney's small part in The Duellists seemed odd to me. He was a fairly big star at the time.

Richard Pryor in LOST HIGHWAY.
It din't seem odd,yet I didn't expect it,to see Henry Rollins and Marilyn Manson.
Just saw this last nite...all...as a rule I like David Lynch's movies...but this thing makes NO dam sense.

Frank Zappa in The Monkee's "HEAD"!!!
peter johnson/denny crane

Since the Zappa/Nesmith "interview" (where they each pretend to be the other) at the beginning of one episode of the TV show was one of my earliest exposures to Zappa, along with every once in a while seeing "You are What You is" on MTV, I already had a vague association of Zappa and the Monkees. Zappa in Head fits, to me anyway. Besides he had said in interviews at the time they were the "best sounding band" around at the time since they had a whole music company supporting them, could have their pick of studio and backing musicians and quality and choice equipment, and had lots of quality songwriters' material to pick from.

Seeing a clip of Zappa on the old Steve Allen Show was odd as hell though.

Now Terri Garr, Sonny Liston, and Victor Mature (VICTOR MATURE!) in that film threw me the first time I saw it. Oh, and the scene in the diner where Nicholson walks into the frame for a second.

I was watching Exorcist 3 yesterday and in a dream sequence, Fabio was in it as a angel.

I find that seriously disturbing  :question: :bluesad:

The film that came to my mind was 1963's "Son of Flubber," which was the sequel to 1961's "The Absent Minded Professor" w/ Fred Macmurray. There were several actors in it, who would later become well known, but were yet relative unknowns, when the film was made.

Paul Lynde. This was his motion picture debut. Seen as one of the sportscasters at the football game.

Joe Flynn. One year after his role as Captain Binghamton on "McHale's Navy." Seen as an announcer on television.

Darby Hinton. One year before his role as Daniel Boone's son on the television series "Daniel Boone." Seen as one of the trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

and Harvey Korman. Four years before "The Carol Burnett Show." Seen as one of the actors in the one of the television commercials seen in the film.

The chickens in the opening scene in 'From Hell It Came". Never figured what they were supposed to mean. Perhaps the crew got tired of shooing them away.

Although he's known for appearing in several lousy movies, I was taken by surprise by Clint Howard in House Of The Dead. 

Hi everybody, I'm new here.

On this topic,  any of Iggy Pop's rolls befuddle me.
The especially troubling ones are the rolls he played in Pete and Pete and Snowday which are both kids shows.

Here's a guy who would strip down, roll in glass, shoot up on stage and then OD; and he's on a kids show.

Hey the Brazilian porn star Xuxa went on to be a kids TV show host, so Iggy's acting roles in kids shows and films is less of a transition.

Plus the makers were probably fans and put him in to meet him (Henry Rollins has said he gets calls for auditions for roles and hosting jobs he has no chance of getting from people in the business who are fans quite often) or for the inside joke for parents who might recognize him. But it is like hearing "Lust for Life" on commercials for a cruise line. Wonder how many people seeing or hearing him in these contexts don't know or "get" who Iggy is.

I don't think seeing Clint Howard in that film threw me for a loop as much as seeing Jürgen Prochnow did. Or seeing Ben Kingsley in the trailer for Bloodrayne.  :teddyr:

That's pretty funny about Xuxa.  Didn't one of the power rangers star in porn before hand too?  The stuff we expose kids too :)

Not to harp on "Pete and Pete," but some crazy people pop up in that show:  Michael Stipe, Vincent Pastore, Steve Buscemi, Debbie Harry, David Johansen...

I think one of the Power Ranges is also under suspicion of murder, for tying a man and his wife to an anchor and tossing them overboard.  All to steal the luxury yacht.

EDIT:  Yep, found it.

http://www.tv.com/power-rangers/show/1905/story/556.html?tag=story_list;title;2

http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/2444190

One link say he appeared in one episode of "Power Rangers" so he my have only been a child actor who happened to be on the show once.

And Xuxa's porn career was shorter and tamer, by Brazilian standards anway, than I was led to believe, according to Wikipedia. But the article is badly written and slightly fan-ish, and I'm guessing by someone for whom English is a second language.

Wait, hold it.

Jürgen Prochnow was in House of the Dead?

Damn, man...then again...he and Max von Sydow slummed like mofos in Judge Dredd eight years earlier...

Robert Englund in Strangeland
Ossie Davis in Bubba Ho Tep
Pat Priest in The Two Headed Transplant
Michael Caine in Jaws the Revenge

Ossie Davis was a weird one, but he got so into the role, I'm glad he did it.

After some of the paycheck flicks Michael Caine has made, like those late 90s Harry Palmer after the Iron Cutain fell snoozefests, nothing surprises me from him.

Recently, Billy Connelly in that idiotic Garfield sequel threw me and disappointed me. Tried to explain to the others watching that he really was funnier in five minutes on a talk show (he and Dave Chappelle are pretty much the only reasons I'll watch Conan O'Brien) just talking off the top of his head than anything in the whole movie could ever be, but it was wasted on them.

Your Karma just went up for that  :thumbup:

How about John Ratzenberger (or however you spell it) aka Cliff from Cheers in Motel Hell and I think he is in a small part in Superman. 

I'm watching FlashDance (What I'm bored and its the only thing on TV) and Lee Ving from  the L.A. punk band FEAR had a small part.