The first thing that popped in my head when reading this was Rick Springfield in Mission: Magic. Seems to be a recurring motif in his career.
While *Cerebus *is rife with parody, Sim’s injection of himself as author into the narrative likely owes as much to his ongoing mental deterioration as anything. “Weird” doesn’t cover the half of it.
Kurt Vonnegut likewise inserts himself into Breakfast of Champions. It doesn’t go well.
On Community, Luis Guzmán appeared in person after Greendale raised a statue of him as the community college’s most illustrious graduate that was willing to allow it (in the episode, the first celebrity approached, Mark Hamill, says “no”.)
Because things in this show have to go meta, French Stewart appeared not as himself, but as the manager of a group of celebrity impersonators, who explains that he moved into management when demand for his work as a French Stewart impersonator dried up.
Dan Harmon stated that they wanted Albert Brooks to appear as himself, but Brooks wanted to actually work as an actor, so they made his role a fictional character.
There are three Bugs Bunny cartoons from the 40’s where Elmer Fudd bears a striking resemblance to Arthur Q Bryan the man who did Elmer’s voice at that time.
Not a cameo, but there’s a cartoon where Jack Benny and Eddie Anderson play themselves as mice.
Brother, you ain’t lying. Sim went downright crazy.
Robert Heinlein put himself - a few times - in The Number of the Beast. But it wasn’t really front-facing.
Roy Thomas also wrote his wife Danette into the Marvel Universe in a “What If?” story where Conan goes through a time portal to mean streets of late 70s NYC as the damsel-in-distress/romantic interest.
Comic book creator cameos are pretty common, but I don’t know how far back in history they go. Can anyone one think of any creator appearances prior to, say, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby crashing Reed and Sue’s wedding in the pages of Fantastic Four?
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen from Extras have already been mentioned, so I’ll add Kate Winslet in Extras.
“The House That Jack Built.” Mary Livingstone and Don Wilson were in it too, as was Mel Blanc doing the Maxwell and Ed, Jack’s vault guard. The whole regular cast of The Jack Benny Program.
Might be too long to consider a “cameo,” but in book seven of The Dark Tower, Stephen King puts himself in the story. Liked it at first, later it was WTF, Steve?
Ron Jeremy shows up very briefly in Butch Walker and the Black Widow’s Synthesizersvideo. Come to think of it, Butch Walker has a cameo role also.
That doesn’t count as a cameo - he had a long part.
badoomtish
Phil Simms playing an enhanced version of himself on Elementary. He was one of Holmes’ “irregulars” advising Sherlock on knife throwing. They never used his last name, but it was supposed to be him.
Sherlock Holmes : Yeah. Fifteen years he spent throwing that misshapen ball around. Fifteen years. When I think of the acclaim he could have brought to competitive blade slinging…
He was also in News Radio as kind of himself I guess.
Art Fleming (the first and best host of Jeopardy) in Airplane 2.
I love Kareem Abdul Jabbar in Airplane! We see him as the co-pilot, and he’s playing it straight…until called out by the kid, and he’s finally had enough. “The hell I don’t!”
It goes well for the surgeon who gets the gig of retrieving his testicles. Cha-Ching!
Supposedly the original Captain Marvel’s appearance was based on Jimmy Stewart. If you watch his early movies you can definitely see the resemblance.
I had always heard that it was Fred MacMurray. And Mary Marvel was based on Judy Garland, and Uncle Dudley was based on W.C. Fields.
I always enjoyed the scene in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” where Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson is walking through a nightclub twisted comes upon the real Hunter S. Thompson who’s staring at him. “Holy Shit, it’s me!”.
Brad Pitt and Matt Damon as Dating Game bachelors in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind