And speaking of actors with cameo performances (thanks to Alan Smithee and his Max von Sydow thread)

[The Burgomaster]

I bought the recently released Gene Wilder comedy THE ADVENTURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' SMARTER BROTHER and watched it last night.  During a scene in an opera house, a guy in the audience turns toward the camera and makes a comment about the opera.  I said to myself, "Hey, I think that was Albert Finney."  And sure enough, the IMDB lists him as having a cameo in the movie.

What other movies have you seen where an actor pops up unexpectedly?  I think the biggest surprise cameo of all time was Jack Nicholson in BROADCAST NEWS.

[Ozzymandias]

Robert Vaughn in Glass Bottom Boat.

[trekgeezer]

 This is one of those films I haven't watched all the way through for many, many years which managed to have quite a few surprises.

First off it was the first time an actor ever got a share of the movie's profit because Universal couldn't afford Jimmy Stewart's salary.

I saw Rock Hudson in the credits, but didn't realize what character he played until the end credits (he was the Indian Chief Young Bull).

I'm watching the calvary scene when lo and behold there's Tony Curtis and James Best. Best is killed without saying a word, but Curtis gets about three lines.


p.s. I had started a separate thread with this, but then saw Burgo's post and moved it over here.

[Menard]

Satires, if not outright parodies, are often loaded with cameos. Two such films are:

National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1 which features cameos by James Doohan, Bruce Willis, Ponch and John from CHiPs, and a boatload of others, including a beaver. (:

and

Innocent Blood which features cameos from a number of people in the horror industry including Dario Argento, Sam Raimi, Forrest J Ackerman, and several others including Tom Savini in a minor role.

[ulthar]

Not really a cameo, but I always wondered about the casting decision to put Steven Seagal in Executive Decision.

After all, it's not his usual sort of role since he gets killed off with little screen time.

[trekgeezer]

I always wondered about Executive Decision for the same reason. Very untypical for Seagal to do such a part. First time I watched it I was really perplexed because they did play up the fact that he was in the film.

[plan9superfan]

-Bruce Willis in "Ocean's Twelve"

-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in "Anger Management"

-Hulk Hogan in "Gremlins 2: The New Batch"

-Whoopi Goldberg in "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle"

-Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Rundown"

-Lou Ferrigno in "Hulk"

-David Soule and Paul Michael Glaser in "Strasky and Hutch"

-Father Guido Sarducci in "Casper"

-Simon Cowell in "Scary Movie 3"

[ulthar]

How about James Van Der Beek in the Scary Movie?

Barry Watson, Joshua Jackson and Topher Grace (and others?) in Ocean's Eleven (2001).

Alfred Hitchcock in many movies.

Stephen King in many movies.

(last two not actors, of course)

Chris Eliot many times on David Letterman.

Edgar Bergen in The Muppet Movie.

Barry Sonnenfeld in Men in Black II (again, not an actor).

[Shadowphile]

You can't forget Stan Lee showing up in 'The Hulk', 'Daredevil' and 'Fantastic Four'  or Bob Kane in 'Batman'.

Steve Buscemi in Animal Factory (which he also directed)  It also had Tom Arnold in a minor role as a serious heavy.

[plan9superfan]

-David Hesselhoff in "The Spogebob Squarepants Movie"

-Mr. T in "Spy Hard"

-Jean Claude Van Damme and James Belushi in "Last Action Hero"

-Stan Lee in "Spider-Man 2"

-the guy who voiced Beast in the 1992 cartoon in "X-Men"

-Dan Marino in "Bad Boys 2"

-Brett Favre in "There's Something About Mary"

-Jason Biggs and James Van der Beek in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"

-Richard Grieco in "A Night at the Roxbury"

-Billy Zane in "Zoolander"

-Neil Patrick Harris in "Harold and Kumar go to White Castle"

-Will Smith in "Jersey Girl"

-Kane Hodder in "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday"

[peter johnson]

Stan Lee also appears in Spiderman 2 -- (guy on the street)
Sylvester Stallone in Woody Allen's "Bananas" -- (thug on a subway)
Bob Hope as a cab driver (uncredited) in a Lucille Ball/Alan Ladd detective/noir thing whose name I forget --
Clint Eastwood in South Pacific -- (incidental sailor)
* * *
Some of the movies others are mentioning here are sort of "cameo-fests", eg. Loaded Weapon 1
In that sense, I suppose you could name films like "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", in which half the fun is playing "spot the comic", with people like Jerry Lewis & Buster Keaton making 5 and 10-second screen appearances.  The 3 Stooges -- with Joe DeRita as Curly -- are on screen for maybe 3 seconds as firemen.
Ditto "Around the World in 80 Days"  -- Ronald Coleman, Ida Lupino, etc. etc. etc. etc.
See "The Magic Christian" for quick peeks at Christopher Lee (billed as "the ship's vampire"), Racquel Welch, John Cleese, Graham Chapman & Terry Jones (all pre-Monty Python).

peter johnson/denny crane

[plan9superfan]

How about the original "Casino Royale"?

[Shadowphile]

Casino Royale was also a 'spot the actor' movie

Gene Hackman in Young Frankenstein (very small role)

And I swear it was Robert Downey Junior behind those buckteeth as the motel manager in Win a Date with Tad Hamilton.  He was billed as Jasper Pancake, or some similar obvious fake name.

[Fearless Freep]

Racquel Welch, John Cleese, Graham Chapman & Terry Jones (all pre-Monty Python).

Wow, I never realized Racquel Welch was in Monty Python

[peter johnson]

Yeah, Racquel wasn't used very much, and Cleese hated her contributions as a writer --
Graham Chapman didn't get along with her as he felt her too inclined to seize on unimportant or irrelevant bits of grammar, as opposed to viewing the entire scene as a vehicle for comedy or information --
Plus, he was a screaming queen, and she had a big bottom . . .
peter johnson/denny crane