I knew there was one on the tip of my tongue. Underrated film.
He was in all 3, joined by Elvis Costello in the 2nd one. Tons of cameos: Woody Harrelson, Tom Cruise as himself playing Austin, Gwyneth Paltrow as herself as Dixie Normous.
In a similar vein, the Flash once found himself stranded on Earth-Prime, where superheroes only exist as fictional characters in comic books. He enlisted DC editor Julius Schwartz to help him get back to Earth-1. Later, in one of JLA’s annual “Crisis” stories, Elliot Maggin got sent to Earth-1, and Carey Bates got sent to Earth-2, while Schwartz stayed home and worried.
In the last issue of the first Man-Thing series, Steve Gerber appears.
In the last issue of the second Man-Thing series, Chris Claremont appears.
Tom Jones in Mars Attacks!
I’ve always enjoyed the time in Ocean’s 12 when Julia Roberts played Tess who by coincidence looks remarkably like the actress Julia Roberts.
There are no straight roles in Dr. Strangelove.
Michael Jackson as himself/alien in “Men In Black,” and as “himself” in The Simpsons."
“Weird Al” in the first and third “Naked Gun” movies. He was in the second one, but not as himself.
After writer Grant Morrison put Animal Man through the wringer for years, the protagonist walks up to a house and opens the door. Only to meet a quite ordinary man: “I’m Grant. You coming in?”
Explanations and a tying up of loose ends ensues.
It’s well done. Here’s part of that explanation…
In an episode of “Legends of Tomorrow” the heroes realize the bad guy sounds a lot like John Noble. They go back in time to the set of Lord of the rings and get John Noble to say some lines that they need to set up the plan to defeat the baddie.
Of course John Noble played himself and he had already been the voice of the bad guy for multiple episodes. The episode was aptly titled “Guest Starring John Noble.” When he was playing himself it’s one of the few times I have heard him using his real accent.
Barbara Streisand when Roseanne was on SNL. “Like buttah”
Johnny Carson’a “appearance” on the Mary Tyler Moore show as a guest at her party during a blackout.
Not playing herself, but Suzanne Pleshette appearing as Emily Hartley at the end of Newhart.
I remember it. And the catchy theme tune. Pity the show itself was rather tepid.
Stan Lee is, of course, King of the Cameo.
You may well be the only one that enjoyed that. For many of us, it was a Mack truck driven through the veneer of suspension of disbelief. “Hey wait - you look like George Clooney** and you look like Brad Pitt! What an amazing coincidence!”
Lawrence Fishburne had a cameo on The Muppets that still makes me laugh. He basically just drives by and insults Kermit.
I always thought that was the point to all of those movies! I left the veneer in the lobby.
In an episode of Green Acres, Oliver and Lisa go to see their senator. Lisa asks him “What actor are you?” since at the time actors were getting into politics. The actor says, “Lyle Talbot,” his real name. Talbot is probably best known as the only decent actor in Plan 9 From Outer Space.
I thought the Julia Roberts thing was a great moment. The George Clooney Oceans movie had little to do with reality in any respect. And not exactly new – remember Ralph Bellamy in His Girl Friday, where his character was described as looking like Ralph Bellamy.
Since SNL has been mentioned, one of the greatest highlights is then Mayor Rudy Giuliani doing the opening on their 2001 season opener, days after 9/11:
Lorne Michaels: “Can we be funny?”
Rudy Giuliani: “Why start now? (Pause) Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!”
"
Live from New York, New York was still alive.
SNL, again:
A very, VERY early epi had Charles Grodin as guest host and Paul Simon as musical guest. Simon is about to do a number when Grodin appears with an Art Garfunkel wig and begs to sing with Paul. Argument ensues, Simon walks off, leaving Grodin alone on the stage. Here comes Garfunkel–Give me the wig, Charles–and he leaves. Hilarious.
You very, very bad man.
The most famous example of this is Boris Karloff’s role in the Broadway production of Arsenic and Old Lace. (The joke was not as funny with Raymond Massey in the film version.)
In Forever, Darling, Lucille Ball gets spiritual guidance from an angel, who takes the form of James Mason. Why James Mason? Because she would pay attention to someone who looks like James Mason. In one scene, she goes to a theater to watch a movie. The film-within-a-film stars James Mason.
Kevin Spacey as himself playing Dr. Evil. Danny DeVito as himself playing Mini-Me. And of course, Steven Spielberg.
If we’re including comic book creators, and talking about Roy Thomas, we have to talk about the Rutland Halloween Parade issues, which spanned multiple Marvel and DC comics in the early 70s, and featured cameos from several comic book artists and writers. (The first couple of images at that link are missing now, but most of the illustrations are still there when you scroll further down).
To briefly summarize, the small city of Rutland, Vermont, held (and still holds) an annual Halloween parade in which a lot of people dressed as superheroes. This was kind of notable, as it was long before superhero cosplay became a thing, and it attracted the attention of several comic book creators, who started attending. Eventually they liked it so much that they started setting some stories there, and put themselves into the issues. It’s kind of fun, but weird at the same time.