I don’t so much mean cameo apperances by people who were already famous, but rather people who played characters who had something in common with themselves.
On a GD thread about the Presidency and the draft, someone mentioned that Tom Mix really had been a cowboy. Audie Murphy’s name came up too; the most decorated veteran in U.S. history played himself in a movie version of “To Hell and Back,” his autobiography.
Lee Ermey was a drill instructor prior to playing one in “Full Metal Jacket.” Who else has played a character he or she had a great deal in common with?
Ben Johnson was a working cowboy on a ranch in Texas. He went west with a shipment of horses that were bought by a movie studio and stayed on as a wrangler. The legend is that he stopped a runaway horse and wagon during a shoot, and the director promised to make him a star. The director was John Ford, and the rest is film history.
Jean Harlow played a movie star with a sexy image and a crazy family in Bombshell (1933)–much like herself and her own life.
Edgy, aging star Bette Davis played an edgy, aging star in All About Eve (1950)–Davis even married her leading man from the film!
John Malkovich in ‘Being John Malkovich’ ;).
Fred Thompson, who was a DA in Tennessee, played himself when a movie was made concerning a court case the state had been involved in. I think it was called Marie and had Sissy Spacek in it. Thompson went on to play the naval commander in “The Hunt for Red October”, the airport manager in the second Die Hard movie, plus some other things. He was then elected to the US Senate for a term, but didn’t run again and is now doing some more acting I think.
Fred Thomspn is playing the Manhattan DA on Law and Order.
One of the best examples is William (“Officer Obie”) Obanhein, who played himself in “Alice’s Restaurant” (along with the 8 x 10 color glossy photographs with pictures and arrows on the back of each one). It was a pretty good performance for a nonprofessional actor, but he prefered police work to Hollywood and never acted again.
Malcolm McDowell’s character in “O Lucky Man!” Many of the incidents shown in the film were from McDowell’s life story (the work as a coffee salesman) and the final scene shows him getting the part in a movie very much like “If . . . ,” his first real movie role.
Harold Russell played a double amputee in “The Best Years of Our Lives,” after losing both his hands in WWII.
Chuck Norris played himself in “Sidekicks,” about a kid who’s a karate fighter who wants to emulate Chuck Norris, the karate champ (which Norris was). Norris was only in a few scenes, but it was considerably more than a cameo.
Charles Dutton, who played a prisoner in Alien 3, is an ex-convict.
. . . and a mean sonofabitch. I went to college with him.
Oscar Levant played himself, as did Al Jolson, in Rhapsody In Blue. Most of Levant’s acting roles were thinly veiled “characters” based on himself.
He was also a kind of unofficial technical advisor in adddition to appearing in the film The Cobweb, since he had spent time in clinics and mental institutions for drug addiction and mental health problems.
Guess who starred in the Jackie Robinson Story. Nicholson’s psych in Cuckoo Nest was the Oregon State head psych. Didn’t the Beatles play the Beatles in Hard Day’s Night? Actually musicians often play themselves, I can think of many (& I mean have dialog too)
Capote played himself in Blake’s 1st, non- Rascal flic, “In Cold Blood.”
See, Eve, this is the problem. You never tell us all these interesting things about yourself until someone else brings the subject up. How about after you finish your current book, you write an autobiography for all us evaphiles?
Let’s see…
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Muhammad Ali played himself in “The Greatest.”
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Maniacal Oakland Raiders tackle John Matuszak played a maniacal football player in “North Dallas 40.”
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Babe Ruth played himself in “Pride of the Yankees.”
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In “Beverly Hills Cop,” Eddie Murphy played a Detroit detective under the command of Inspector Todd. Todd was played by Gilbert Hill, who was a real detective on the Detroit police force at the time.
Does Woody Allen ever play anyone else?
Probably a bit obscure for non-French-Canadian dopers, but some years ago there was a very, very popular tv series on Radio-Canada called Omerta.
This was a police vs. mafia type of story set in Montreal. The head of the mob was played by Dino Tavarone who is a repented mafia boss.
He was very convincing but in the words of a police inspector interviewed on tv: “He’s not good, he’s just being himself.”
Wasn’t Doyle, the cop played by Hackman in the French Connection ,also in the movie as a NYC cop? Chuck Yeager was in the Right Stuff-as a custodian. JWelch,famous attorney, played the judge in Anatomy of a Murder.
Audie Murphy played himself.
Chuck Yeager played a bartender in “The Right Stuff”. His character worked for Kim Stanley, who was playing Pancho Barnes.
Stephen King in MONKEYBONE
and I deepy believe that Jason Mewes isn’t really acting as Jay