Big movies stars in bit parts:
Nicolas Cage (as Nicolas Coppola) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
Dana Carvey with Billy Crystal in This is Spinal Tap.
Who wants to go next?
Be specific, bit parts, not cameos!!
Hmm. Ted Danson’s walk on in Saving Private Ryan, I suppose.
Not technically a ‘movie’ star but it made me sit up and say ‘wait a minute!’
Clint Eastwood in The Giant Tarantula
Leonard Nimoy in the Republic serial thriller Zombies Of The Stratosphere
Kevin Bacon in Animal House
Julia Sweeney in Pulp Fiction
Ben Affleck in Dazed and Confused
Do you mean “before they were famous” bit parts?
Leonard Nimoy and James Arness in Them!
Joe Pesci in Hey, Let’s Twist (he was the guitarist with the Starlighters)
Teri Garr as a dancer in various films like Viva Las Vegas
Sylvester Stallone in Bananas
John Travolta in The Devil’s Rain
Robert Blake in The Treasure of Sierra Madre
Milton Berle as a baby in Tillie’s Punctured Romance
Liza Minelli in In the Good Old Summertime
George Clooney in The Thin Red Line
Robin Williams in Branagh’s Hamlet
I don’t think Ben Affleck counts – that was more than a bit part IMHO, especially since Dazed and Confused essentially had an ensemble cast.
Harrison Ford in an old episode of Kung Fu.
Seeing that really made my day.
“Hey… that thug there… isn’t that…”
Harrison Ford in Apocalypse Now.
John Travolta in The Thin Red Line.
Christian Slater in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Liam Neeson in Krull. He also turned up in Excalibur, as did Patrick Stewart.
In Wayne’s World 2, Charleton Heston has a bit part as the manager at a gas station where Wayne stops to ask for directions.
Sean Connery had a surprise bit part as King Richard in Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. This same set up was parodied in Robin Hood: Men in Tights when Patrick Stewart shows up at the end playing the same role.
Robert Duvall as Boo Radley in “To Kill a Mockingbird”
Gene Hackman as the blind hermit in “Young Frankenstein”
Harrison Ford - a bellboy in Dead Heat On A Merri-Go-Round
Robert Duvall - taxi driver in Bullitt
Roddy McDowell - Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
these are really cameos, but I like them:
Peter O’Toole - Casino Royale
Frank Zappa - Head
Samuel Jackson and Michael Keaton - Out Of Sight
Vincent Price and Boris Karloff - those Frankie and Annette beach movies
Sylvester Stallone in Prisoner of Second Avenue
Clint Eastwood in Revenge of the Creature
Lee Van Cleef in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
Also -
Tony Curtis in Winchester '73
James Stewart in Rose-Marie, aka Indian Love Call
And in case anyone is setting rules, I am not using the IMDb or any other reference to think these up, but I am using the IMDb to make sure they are correct before I post.
Not sure if this counts as a bit part or a cameo, but -
Charleton Heston in the 2001 version of Planet of the Apes
How about those old war movies, like The Longest Day or A Bridge Too Far? The had everybody in them! Like John Ratzenberger as “U.S. Lieutenant” in ABTF. I seem to recall Sean Connery had a very minor part (was he even famous enough for it to be a cameo?) in TLD.
Ratzenberger also had a line in The Empire Strikes Back . And White Lightning you’re probably right, he did make the end credits with “Slow Ride” in the background after all. Plus, who can forget that woman pulling a shotgun oh him?
That’s the part were he uttered the lines he probably regret the most :
