If you’re a top line actor making millions your perceived value is dependent on how well you draw in an audience. If you’re not in the credits, then you are not expected to draw the same way. Yes, some people will know you’re in the film, but the people who go to your films based upon your name will not go to the uncredited one.
Thus, by not being credited, they can’t say, “Your last film barely made $12 million, so we can’t pay you like a star whose films make $120 million.” The agent’s riposte is that the actor was uncredited and therefore his fans didn’t show up.
Another factor is that the producer can say, “You played a character role, so you shouldn’t be paid like a leading man.” By not taking credit, you are saying, “This role doesn’t count when I negotiate a contract.”
It’s partly a game, too, of course. Producers have a tacit agreement not to hold uncredited performances as a way to reduce what they pay a star. And you can make small independent films and not be penalized when you’re cast in a blockbuster. But some actors don’t want to take a chance.
I was watching Fargo the other night, and caught something interesting. In the beginning of the movie, Peter Stormare kills a cop who has pulled him and Steve Buscemi over. A passing car witnesses them disposing of the body, so he runs them off the road, and shoots one of the passengers as they’re fleeing on foot.
In the credits, the actor who played the passenger is credit as this, although the symbol is turned sideways. According to the IMDB, it’s not the famously weird musician in that role, but long time Coen brother’s storyboard artist, J. Todd Anderson. I’ve been wondering what the story behind that is. I’m guessing it’s some kind of private joke.
I just learned that Kenneth Branagh was not credited in “Swing Kids” by his own request, because if he had been, he would have received billing over the young actors who played the kids, and he didn’t want to take that honor away from them. The “Swing Kids” wiki page mentions this.
ETA: Damn, that’s what I get for not refreshing the page! Didn’t mean to step on your toes, eclectic wench.
In the made-for-TV movie “I Know My First Name Is Steven,” based on the Steven Stayner case, Arliss Howard, who played Parnell (Stayner’s kidnapper), is uncredited despite his being in almost every scene.
Speaking of Williams, he’s credited as “Marty Fromage” for his appearance in Shakes the Clown, a highly underrated film in my opinion.
And then there was Dustin Hoffman’s appearance on The Simpsons, credited to “Sam Etic”.
In “The Hospital” (1971), Barnard Hughes plays a major role in the movie as a patient named Drummond, although we don’t get to actually see Drummond on screen until about well into the movie.
But you see Hughes a little earlier in an uncredited role. He plays a Dr. Mallory (a rather significant role itself), who performs a hysterectomy. He’s in disguise (glasses, mustache, hairpiece), but it’s definitely Hughes. There are some sources that say that a different actor was to play Dr. Mallory, but was unavailable when shooting started, and Hughes stepped in to help out. Maybe, maybe not. But it’s definitely Hughes, and it’s not a case of an actor playing multiple roles (like Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove), or a character in a movie assuming multiple identities (as James Bond might do).
It used to be common in animation (especially in dubbing of anime) for actors to be credited under a false name. Because the studios were often non-union - typically because they couldn’t afford, or justify, union-level fees - but the actors were willing to work for less, just so they could work, so they’d be credited under a false name, to avoid getting in trouble with their union.
There are all sorts of reasons why actors appear uncredited. Sometimes they are working with a friend and want to give his project a boost but don’t want to appear as a cheerleader. Such as “Oh so and so only got a break 'cause he knows Ron Howard.” So if Ron Howard appears uncredited than it lessens the effect.
A lot of times studios think the “word of mouth,” will be better advertsing than the credit. “Who did that voice,” stirs more publicity than stating it outright.
Others have contract issues that prevent them from doing so. Such as an exclusive contracts that are worded certain ways.
Michael Jackson for instance, appears uncredited on the Simpsons but his contract wouldn’t allow him to sing. So it’s his voice when he speaks, but when the character sings it’s not Jackson’s voice.
The term “scale” is the minimum allowed to be paid by a union. A lot of actors will do things for that. Johnny Carson would only pay “scale” to his guests. Of course the benefit was being seen on his show, to break into things or to promote your movies.
It’s an obscure one, but cool British character actor David Warner wasn’t credited as the mentally handicapped guy (the one accused of rape that all of the local toughs want to forcefully take from Dustion Hoffman) in Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs.
Great minds, gallows fodder! And I never knew why that was…