# Authors Who've Acted in Movies Based on their Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091 "2008-01-26T15:49:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/41 "2008-01-27T18:43:13Z")
[QUOTE=jackdavinci] /hijack - biographical movies in which title character plays another role/ Erin Brockovich plays a waitress in that movie. [/QUOTE] Along those lines, Jim Lovell played an officer on the ship that picked up the crew after splashdown in _Apollo 13_, which was based on his book _Lost Moon_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/42 "2008-01-27T20:06:58Z")
> [@](#): > > Have you seen Stephen King in these roles? I think that really stretches the term “acted” perhaps you should just go with “Authors who’ve appeared in movies based on their books”. But Stephen King undoubtedly does act in **Creepshow**. Whether or not you think it’s good is another matter (I do, but I’m very forgiving). It’s practically a one-man show, his segment, and he carries it. The book didn’t precede the movie, though\> You could make the argument that he acted in **Extreme Overdrive** , which he also directed, since he had a few lines. I don’t think Merian C. Cooper counts. He’s not the author of “King Kong” – his name doesn’t feature in the screenwriting credits at all. (He did come up with the basic idea, however) The novelization follows the movie (i.e. – the movie was an original script, not based on a book), and is by Delos W. Lovelace. Cooper and Schoedsack put themselves in as two of the pilots/gunners who shoot down Kong at the end of the film. ---
**Author:** ![Monstera\_deliciosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monstera_deliciosa/32/109_2.png) [@Monstera\_deliciosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monstera_deliciosa)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/43 "2008-01-27T20:08:05Z")
Ron Kovic appeared in _Born on the Fourth of July_ as a veteran in the parade near the beginning of the the movie. He flinches when the fireworks go off, as if recalling the shot that left him wheelchair-bound. Later, when Tom Cruise, who plays Kovic, appears in a parade, he does the same. Oliver Sacks, M.D. appeared as a reporter in At First Sight, which was based on the piece “To See and Not See” from his book _An Anthropologist on Mars_. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/44 "2008-01-27T20:20:31Z")
[QUOTE=jackdavinci] /hijack - biographical movies in which title character plays another role/ Erin Brockovich plays a waitress in that movie. [/QUOTE] Spike Milligan played his own father in a movie based on one of his autobiographies. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068171/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068171/) ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/45 "2008-01-27T20:32:29Z")
Irvine Welsh plays Mikey Forrester (the drug dealer that gives Rent the suppositories and also who sells them the heroin for “the big deal”.) in _Trainspotting_ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/46 "2008-01-27T21:21:56Z")
Not a movie, but in the video game based on _I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream_, Harlan Ellison provided the voice of the computer AM. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/47 "2008-01-27T21:39:38Z")
WWII hero and later Hollywood star [Audie Murphy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy#Autobiography) played himself in a 1955 film adaptation of his autobiography, _To Hell and Back_. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/48 "2008-01-27T21:43:41Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Not a movie, but in the video game based on _I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream_, Harlan Ellison provided the voice of the computer AM. [/QUOTE] Ellison had a bit part in the TV adaptation of his story “The Discarded” for **Masters of Science Fiction**. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/49 "2008-01-28T00:45:06Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] You could make the argument that he acted in **Extreme Overdrive** , which he also directed, since he had a few lines. [/QUOTE] _ **Maximum** Overdrive._ ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/50 "2008-01-28T01:10:56Z")
[QUOTE=WotNot] He also had a blink-and-you-miss-it part in _Daredevil_ as “Man with pen in head”. [/QUOTE] And of course then writer of the Daredevil comics Kevin Smith had an extended scene as the coroner. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/51 "2008-01-28T01:15:27Z")
Carl Hiaasen played an executive assistance in the movie based on his children’s book, _Hoot_. Louis Sachar appeared in the movie _Holes_. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/52 "2008-01-28T01:17:10Z")
executive _assistant_, damn it! ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/53 "2008-01-28T17:20:46Z")
[QUOTE=Cubsfan] Howards Stern [/QUOTE] Sounds like the porno version of a Merchant-Ivory film, with a naval setting. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/54 "2008-01-28T19:09:47Z")
Do Alfred Hitchcock’s cameos count. I’ve read that he tried to get them over quickly, so that waiting for them wouldn’t distract people. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/55 "2008-01-28T19:35:40Z")
Mark Salzman wrote the book [Iron and Silk](http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Silk-Mark-Salzman/dp/0394755111/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201548774&sr=1-1), then starred in [the movie based on that book](http://imdb.com/title/tt0099857/). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/56 "2008-01-28T20:41:43Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] Do Alfred Hitchcock’s cameos count. [/QUOTE] Only if he wrote the original novel. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2008, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091/57 "2008-01-28T21:27:15Z")
Robert Harling appears as the preacher who marries Shelby and Jackson in the movie version of _Steel Magnolias_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-whove-acted-in-movies-based-on-their-books/435091.md?page=2)