Leatherface in texas chainsaw massacre. I think this was his first appearance.
Darth Vader.
I win.John Wayne in Stagecoach. He shows up with the mesas of Monument Valley behind him and the camera zooms in, as John Ford says, “This is a movie star.”
Chico and Harpo in Duck Soup And Groucho in A Night at the Opera
Richard Gere as Billy Flynn in Chicago. I love the fake out.
A towering man striding into view while clad in body armor has a lot going for him. Anthony Hopkins, though, did it as a little guy just standing there in a prison cell.
Leonard Smalls, Biker of the Apocalypse, in Raising Arizona.
You might if someone else hadn’t beaten you by a dozen posts.
Very clever. Expands the possibilities. Does the narration of “We were somewhere on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold” in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" count? Or “Call me Ishmael” in Moby Dick, with Gregory Peck, which I just saw.
I rule that they do.
Not related to that, but I thought of one, in Apocalypse Now - “Saigon. Shit. I’m still only in Saigon.”
ETA. That is another thread. Greatest narrations in movie history.
What about ol’ King Kong?
Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster.
The spider in the basement in “Incredible Shrinking Man.”
Kong-ninja’d, rats!
Sorry, thought you were Robot Arm.
Okay.
The shark in Jaws.
The head in Jaws.
For that matter, Frank’s entrance is pretty good, revealing as it does that Henry Fonda is going to be the heavy.
King Louis XVI in Start the Revolution without Me: “You told me it was a costume ball.”
Characters, not dead heads. No, I remember that, saw the movie when I was 14 or so. To this day, I have never been scared so much by a movie.
Gandalf’s arrival in The Shire. His cart approaches and Fodo says “You’re late!” Slow turn of the head, and the wizard is revealed, peering out from under his hat.
wait… what?