Badmovies.org Forum

Ok, I know that many now-famous actors got their start playing bit parts and that sometimes a famous actor will go uncredited when they make a cameo appearance in a movie, but why do character actors sometimes go uncredited?

For example, I just watched the end of The Craft and when I went to look it up on the IMDB to check something, I noticed this;

John Kapelos ....  Ray (uncredited)

 John Kapelos, better known as Carl the janitor in The Breakfast Club. By the time he made The Craft, he'd already been in 33 movies, co-starred in Forever Knight and guest starred in 22 episodes of assorted TV shows. Why would he be uncredited in The Craft? I admit that I don't recall what part he played, but he's been around long enough that a lot of people recognize his face even if they're not sure where they know him from.



Post Edited (08-24-03 05:57)

A union dodge, maybe?

maybe they were just too embarrassed with the film they were making, but couldn't get out of their contract/ needed the money, so they just asked to go uncredited in the film so maybe noone would notice!
but you don't really get main characters going uncredited regardless [although i seem to remember one fairly major character  was left out, but i can't remember what...darn]

some mysteries are not to be solved by human minds

I know in Troma movies its because they can't pay sag costs for each actor and if you have sag actors in your movies you have to pay those actors at sag rates

... Hence Corey Feldman, aka "Kinky Finkelstein." :)

I think it is alot of times its a compromise. The actor sees the finished product, doesn't like what he sees, and wants out, but, because his part is too large to be edited out, and because a lawsuit to stop the release of the film would be too costly, he asks that is name be taken off the credits.

I believe that Kenneth Branagh wanted out of "Swing Kids," Jerry Orbach wanted out of "Toy Soldiers," and Ron Leibman wanted out of "Up the Academy," and their names are not listed in the film credits, though all three of them have large and recognizable parts in their respective films.

Of course, Robert Downey, Jr. is also left out of the credits of "Up the Academy," but, then that was only his third film, and his previous film was eight years prior.

                                                                                                                                                                 Then there is the case of David Warner in "Straw Dogs," who goes uncredited, because he had broken his foot before the film had started shooting, and the filmmakers couldn't get him insured. Thus, his uncredited appearance in the film.

Of course, then there are films like "How the West Was Won," which is filled with uncredited character actors like Rudy Acosta, Ken Curtis, Jay C. Flippen, Jack Lambert, Joe Sawyer, Harry Dean Stanton, Karl Swenson, and Lee Van Cleef.

For all of them their parts are small, but, they are large enough, so they are recognizable by face, if not by name, or in Ken Curtis' part, by voice.

Lee Van Cleef had been in motion pictures for ten years, ever since his motion picture debut in "High Noon," had appeared in over 50 films, and was credited in his last film "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

Even Harry Dean Stanton, who had yet to become well known, had been in motion pictures for five years and had made eight films, for some of which he had received credit

Thus, in some of these cases, I believe the actors were doing somebody a favor, and thus not that interested in getting billing credit, which seems to be more important now, then then.

Bruce Willis goes uncredited in the final sequence of "Four Rooms" when they chop that guy's pinky off.

Imdb always gives them credit.