# Strange actor cameos **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411 "2010-12-16T20:01:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/121 "2012-06-04T21:02:08Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > And Harrison Ford in _Apocalypse Now_, in the dinner scene where Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) gets his orders to terminate with extreme prejudice. At that point, Ford had already made the original _Star Wars_ and _American Graffiti_. If you look at the name tape on his uniform, you’ll see that he’s Col. Lucas. He picked out the name himself. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/122 "2012-06-04T21:19:11Z")
> [@Daniel\_Shug](#): > > Then, by this definition, this is not a cameo, either, but I always look for him in the first Christopher Reeve “Superman.” He’s one of the military radar techs, tracking the missiles. Ratzenberger was also in Clint Eastwood’s _Firefox_. He was the USN chief responsible for refueling the airplane on the icecap. He certainly got around before landing his role on “Cheers!” Reading about “Combat!” made me think of Ted Knight as a German NCO, well before he became famous as Ted Baxter on “MTM.” He also played a Nazi in the 1962 film _Hitler_, starring Richard Basehart. I love watching old shows like “The Untouchables” and “Perry Mason” and seeing actors who later became famous on their own series playing all kinds of bit parts (e.g., Jack Lord and Neil Hamilton). Richard Dreyfus also had a bit part in _The Graduate_, some time before he became famous. He was the lodger who asked Norman Fell “You want me to call the cops? I’ll call the cops!” ---
**Author:** ![Southpaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@Southpaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southpaw)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/123 "2012-06-05T00:55:42Z")
Sammy Davis, Jr., Don Ho, Werner Klemperer, Art Linkletter, Edward G Robinson, Jerry Lewis and others on Batman. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85gkOXeXG4) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/124 "2012-06-05T01:35:27Z")
[A Guide for the Married Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061736/) was a mid-60s movie, purporting to be a how-to guide for committing adultery. Much of the movie was brief vignettes, as the Robert Morse character explained various techniques and pitfalls to the Walter Matthau character. These vignettes starred about a hundred reasonably well-known Hollywood celebs, all of whom were credited as “Technical Consultant”. The idea being, of course, that adultery was so common in Hollywood that these people were all experts in the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/125 "2012-06-05T01:42:45Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > [A Guide for the Married Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061736/) was a mid-60s movie, purporting to be a how-to guide for committing adultery. . . These vignettes starred about a hundred reasonably well-known Hollywood celebs, all of whom were credited as “Technical Consultant”. . . . And, in one of the very first scenes, you can see an uncredited Angelique Pettyjohn happily jiggling down the street. Not a “star” in any sense of the word, but a year or so later she would forever be unforgettable as “Star Trek’s” Shahna, from “The Gamesters of Triskelion.” ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/126 "2012-06-05T04:16:18Z")
No one seems to have mentioned Colonel Sanders in **Hell’s Bloody Devils** yet. That was the first one I thought of. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmFNRijVz4s) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/127 "2012-06-05T07:51:35Z")
My favorites have to be the ones from Police Squad. [Dick Clark](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBt-mXIY-tI) [Tommy Lasorda](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS6ViQtNfQo) [Dr.Joyce Brothers](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBm_oOmGQAw) [Lorne Greene](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAToNVy_14o) [Robert Goulet](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Ou82xK_28) [William Shatner](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blHwaFzzbkQ) [Florence Henderson](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynJdsaE9rps) [William Conrad](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFlk5HJKxSI) - this one’s in French! ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/128 "2012-06-05T17:27:15Z")
Since this is a bit of a zombie thread, how about **Chris Martin** from Coldplay in **Shaun of the Dead**. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/129 "2012-06-05T21:16:10Z")
> [@Sam\_A.Robrin](#): > > My favorite: > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrwKDoeCck4](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrwKDoeCck4) :eek: The Magnificent Seven will never be the same again. ☹ Edit: I know this is a zombie. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/130 "2012-06-05T21:28:34Z")
We had a [newer thread on this subject a couple of months ago](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=14881097), where I mentioned my surprise at seeing Stephen Fry make a brief appearance as a computer nerd/Secret Service gadgetmaster in a 2006 teen adventure flick called _Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker_. ---
**Author:** ![D-bear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@D-bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D-bear)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2012, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/131 "2012-06-05T22:24:13Z")
> [@lost4life](#): > > Since this is a bit of a zombie thread, how about **Chris Martin** from Coldplay in **Shaun of the Dead**. Keeping the zombie cameo theme running… How about Bill Murray in Zombieland? [QUOTE=io9] The giant cameo that people saw inside Zombieland this weekend was none other than Bill Murray himself, pretending to be a zombie, so he could remain safe inside his Hollywood mansion. [/QUOTE] [Other cameo appearances were planned but were cut](http://io9.com/5374696/mcconnaughy-to-bacon-all-the-deleted-zombieland-cameos) ---
**Author:** ![Renifer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71c47a/32.png) [@Renifer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renifer)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/132 "2012-06-06T04:09:51Z")
More a character cameo than an actor cameo, but the replacement juror in Runaway Jury is a petite, pale brunette named Lydia Deets, as in Lydia Deets in Beetlejuice. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/133 "2012-06-06T05:34:10Z")
Speaking of strange cameos, how about Tom Cruise, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Spacey, Danny DeVito, John Travolta, Steven Spielberg, and the Osbournes in “Austin Powers in Goldmember”? ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/134 "2013-05-26T21:08:43Z")
Here’s a somewhat strange cameo in “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968). At about 4:09 of [this video,](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwRmCGtWGaE#t=3m28s) you can see (producer) William Castle’s cameo as a person waiting to use the phone. Nothing unusual about producers and directors giving themselvs cameos, but what makes this one a little weird is. . . They did a bait and switch. I’ve cued the video at 3:28. That’s the back of Ralph Bellamy’s head that you first see, as the person waiting to use the phone. He has a major role in the film as Dr. Sapirstein. He then walks off to the left, and then Castle walks onscreen–but with his back to us, as Bellamy did previously, and wearing the same kind of coat. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/135 "2013-05-26T21:59:48Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > John Laroquette was in Start Trek III. It was a speaking role, but a pretty small one. And all of the Klingon makeup made him unrecognizable. I know I’m responding to a zombie post, but Larroquette appeared in _STIII_ before he became famous as Dan Fielding in _Night Court_. Prior to that, his most prominent role was that of Captain Stillman in _Stripes_. This would fall more into a “before they were famous” thread. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/136 "2013-05-26T23:56:19Z")
And while we’re slumming along in zombieland, I thought I’d throw out this: I am certain John Ratzenberger has a cameo in an early episode of _Moonlighting_, “Devil in a Blue Dress” - the bizarre Whoopi Goldberg episode where they end by running off into the studio lot. Someone gets a ride with a cowboy on a horse, and I have watched the sequence closely, listened to the voice carefully, and am certain the cowboy is John Ratzenberger. However, the role is credited to an actor with exactly that one credit - Roy something or other. [Judge for yourself.](http://www.dgath.com/misc/jr_moonlighting.gif) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/137 "2013-05-27T02:02:55Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I love watching old shows like “The Untouchables” and “Perry Mason” and seeing actors who later became famous on their own series playing all kinds of bit parts (e.g., Jack Lord and Neil Hamilton). The SDMB is one of the few places where “famous on their own series” and Neil Hamilton are mentioned in the same sentence. Before acting Hamilton was a shirt model, the nineteen-teens being AFTER the heyday of the celluloid collar models a Romney campaigner likened the Mittster to. And a [cover boy!](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XttmwLID7Ec/UKDFlIICurI/AAAAAAAAAB0/qCoBXvI-cxI/s1600/1918-11-30+Soldier+leading+Turkey+-+J+C+Leyendecker.jpg) > [@mlees](#): > > The Magnificent Seven will never be the same again. ☹ “Hmm, Yul Brynner in drag. Could look worse. Wait, that’s ROMAN POLANSKI!” I see that [The Magic Christian](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064622/) is a cameo extravaganza. I may have to see it. ---
**Author:** ![DxZero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@DxZero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DxZero)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/138 "2013-05-27T15:58:32Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > **Gandhi** - Candace Bergen’s photographer character is being driven to meet the famous guru in a jeep by a soldier played by John Ratzenberger (Cliff Clavin on “Cheers.”) The most jarring part of this cameo is that Ratzenbergers’ lines are clearly overdubbed by another actor. I guess the director thought he would never amount to anything as an actor and therefore nobody would notice that it wasn’t his speaking voice. It’s jarring to say the least. Dunno if I agree with your interpretation of the director’s views on Ratzenberger, since he (Richard Attenborough) directed him 5 years earlier in “A Bridge Too Far” where the future Mr. Clavin did use his own speaking voice. And yeah I know this a 3 year old comment. ---
**Author:** ![Mattie\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71c47a/32.png) [@Mattie\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mattie_Blue)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2013, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411/139 "2013-05-27T16:44:02Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > **Frank Oz** and **Steven Spielberg** both have small roles in _The Blues Brothers_. Oz is the guy at the prison reading the inventory of Jake’s belongings, and Spielberg is the clerk at the end who takes their payment for the taxes on the orphanage. Plus, at the end during the prison “Jailhouse Rock” scene, guitarist Joe Walsh is the shaggy blonde prisoner first seen banging his cup and then jumping up onto the table to dance. By that time he was well known for the James Gang and Eagles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-actor-cameos/564411.md?page=6)