Strange actor cameos

Wow, I can’t believe no one mentioned this before. :wink:

:smiley:

George Clooney voicing Sparky the Gay Dog in an early episode of South Park. All he did was pant, growl, and bark.

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.

the King of Kings - Cecil B. DeMille’s story of Christ. One of the un-credited extras playing an adoring disciples of Christ was none other than Ayn Rand, an avowed athiest.

Sesame Street - the old “Jazzy Number” animated bits (“One Two Three Four Five SixSevenEight Niiiiiine Tennnn…”), the scat singing was performed by counterculture rock star Grace Slick.

Klute - Late in the film, sassy streetwalker Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda) drops in on one of her regular Johns’ office. The receptionist at the desk is Jean Stapleton - Edith “Dingbat” Bunker from All In the Family.

The makers of Airplane! purchased the film rights to Zero Hour.

Pat Nixon (as in Mrs Richard Milhous Nixon) worked as an extra in movies like “Becky Sharp” and “The Great Ziegfield”

Robin Williams as John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. A few lines, a couple of moments on screen, and that was it.

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, and while he had yet to play some of his greatest roles, I’d guess that he was still well-enough known that his two minutes and brief dialog deserve a “huh?”

Ratzenberger also appears (and is dubbed by someone else) in The Empire Strikes Back two years earlier (he’s a Rebel officer on Hoth).

That is hardly a cameo. A cameo is a small bit by someone who is already famous. At this point, Ratzenberger was barely a bit actor.

He was also going to be in Game of Death with Bruce Lee about the time.

In the same movie and also unrecognizable is Peter Jackson, as a deranged Father Christmas who stabs Simon Pegg. Probably 2 seconds of screen time.

I always think it’s Shemp Howard driving the elevated train that’s attacked by Kong in the original. I know it isn’t, but it sure looks like him.

Ford probably filmed his scenes for Apocalypse Now before Star Wars came out, and his role in American Graffiti was not that big. Ford also had a small role in The Conversation, another excellent Coppola movie.

Matt Damon is the cameo king of his generation. My favorite is his off camera appearance on Law and Order: Criminal Intent: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0629593/trivia

Damon and Brad Pitt had non-speaking cameos as Dating Game contestants in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (which Ocean’s 11 co-star George Clooney directed and played a supporting role in).

Kurt Vonnegut had a non-speaking “Old man on the street” cameo in the very good film of Mother Night and as a director in the absolutely unwatchable film of Breakfast of Champions, though he spoke in a five second cameo in Back to School in which Rodney Dangerfield’s character hires him to write an essay on Slaughterhouse 5 (which IIRC gets a C).

Jimmy Fallon was in Band of Brothers playing a supply officer or some such. Not sure if he was already in SNL at the time or not though, so it may not count.

Simon Pegg was as well. I thought it was funny to see him playing an American First Sergeant but I didn’t see the series until after he became popular from Shaun of the Dead and beyond. I assume he got the role because they were filming in England or somewhere thereabouts.

If animation counts, George Clooney was the voice of a gay dog on South Park and Liz Taylor said one word (“Dada”) as the voice of Maggie on The Simpsons.

Curly Howard left the act in 1946 due to his stroke but made a cameo one year later in Hold That Lion. It has two distinctions: it’s the only scene in which all three Howard/Horowitz brothers appeared together and the only one in which Curly had a full head of hair. He was seated in the cameo due to stroke related mobility problems. (Youtube of cameo.)

**Kevin Bacon **has a cameo in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles as the guy racing **Steve Martin **for a cab at the beginning of the movie. He was already pretty well-known at that point (***Footloose ***was 3 years earlier).

Brad Pitt also played a reformed nerd who hated the Jennifer Aniston (his wife at the time) character Rachel in a single episode of Friends.