MAS*H – not only a great cast, but the actors all were relative newcomers and went to be stars:
Elliot Gould
Donald Sutherland
Tom Skerret
Robert Duvall
Rene Auberjonois
Bud Cort
Sally Kellerman
Michael Murphy
John Schuck
Roger Bowen
Fred Williamson
Jo Ann Pflug
Gary Burghoff
The same for American Grafitti, though most became TV stars rather than movie stars
Harrison Ford
Ron Howard
Richard Dreyfus
Suzanne Somers
Cindy Williams
Paul Le Mat
Charles Martin Smith
Mackenzie Phillips
Kathleen Quinlan
Joe Spano
Debralee Scott
Bo Hopkins
My choices have all been named already. (By the way, it’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. Only four “Mad’s” > If you recall the theme music, please note that there is a sung version, and you can count the “mads” from the music. Thank you for your patience.)
Three others to suggest: Around the World in 80 Days is crammed with Cameos. So is The Muppet Movie.
But undoubtedly the WORST star-studded movie is Irwwin Allen’s The Swarm. This movie is positively painful to watch. (I showed it at my last Bad Film Festival). Yet it has:
Michael Caine
Fred MacMurray
Henry Fonda (!!!)
Ali McGraw
and a host of others I can’t recall.
Allow me to suggest another all-star stinker: The Story of Mankind, ostensibly based on Hendrik Van Loon’s best-seller.(And also by Irwin Allen – the man never learned.)
Ronald Colam as The Spirit of Mankind!
Vincent Price as Mr. Scratch
Peter Lorre as Nero
Groucho Marx as Peter Minuit(!!!)
Chico Marx as a monk talking to Columbus
The mention of “Clue” reminded me of “Murder By Death”:
Alec Guinness
Truman Capote
Peter Falk
David Niven
Eileen Brennan
Elsa Lanchester
Maggie Smith
Peter Sellers
Also, “Hannah and her Sisters”
Michael Caine
Mia Farrow
Dianne Wiest
Barbara Hershey
Max Von Sydow
Woody Allen
Carrie Fisher
and others I can’t recall off the top of my head
Albert Finney, Richard Widmark, Anthony Perkins, Lauren Bacall, Jacquiline Bissett, Michael York, Sir John Gielgud, Martin Balsam, Lynn Redgrave, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery
Henry Fonda
Ed Beglet
E.G. Marshall
Martin Balsam
Jack Klugman
Lee J. Cobb
Airport
Burt Lancaster
Dean Martin
George Kennedy
Jackie Bisset
Helen Hayes
Lloyd Nolan
Whit Bissell
The Towering Inferno
Paul Newman
Steve McQueen
William Holden
Faye Dunaway
Fred Astaire
Richard Chamberlin
Jennifer Jones
Robert Vaughn
Dabney Coleman
Robert Wagner
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Spencer Tracy
Milton Berle
Sid Caesar
Buddy Hackett
Ethel Merman
Mickey Rooney
Dick Shawn
Phil Silvers
Terry-Thomas
Jonathan Winters
Jack Benny
Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson
Jim Backus
Andy Devine
The Three Stooges
Buster Keaton
Jimmy Durante
Carl Reiner
Arnold Stang
Jerry Lewis
Norman Fell
Peter Falk
Dune (Bad movie, decent cast)
Francesca Annis
Brad Dourif
José Ferrer
Linda Hunt
Kyle MacLachlan
Virginia Madsen
Jürgen Prochnow
Patrick Stewart
Sting
Dean Stockwell
Max von Sydow
Alicia Witt
Sean Young
Also, for pointly trivia, which TV series featured the following actors:
Paul Newman
James Dean
Veronica Lake
Gene Raymond
James Doohan
Merle Oberon
Dan O’Herlihy
Joanne Woodward
Rod Steiger
Boris Karloff
Lon Chaney, Jr.
Darren McGavin
and Leslie Neilsen
In addition to his earlier mentioned MAS*H and The Player, I’d point to Robert Altman’s Ready to Wear (aka Pret a Porter) which was also star-studded:
Marcello Mastroianni
Sophia Loren
Kim Basinger
Stephen Rea
Anouk Aimée
Rupert Everett
Lili Taylor
Ute Lemper
Forest Whitaker
Julia Roberts
Tim Robbins
Lauren Bacall
Lyle Lovett
Tracey Ullman
Sally Kellerman
Linda Hunt
Teri Garr
Danny Aiello
Sam Robards
Christy Turlington
Harry Belafonte
Claude Montana
Thierry Mugler
Cher
Helena Christensen
Sonia Rykiel
Ève Salvail
Elsa Klensch
Jean-Paul Gaultier
Christian Lacroix
Issey Miyake
Gianfranco Ferre
Björk
Naomi Campbell
David Copperfield
Linda Evangelista
Claudia Schiffer
That’s a lot of pretty, pretty people in what was unfortunately a stupid, stupid movie.
To me it seems that** The Greatest Story Ever Told** has an impressive list of stars
Max von Sydow … Jesus
Michael Anderson Jr. … James the Younger
Carroll Baker … Veronica
Pat Boone … Young Man at the Tomb
Victor Buono … Sorak
Richard Conte … Barabbas
Joanna Dunham … Mary Magdalene
José Ferrer … Herod Antipas
Van Heflin … Bar Amand
Charlton Heston … John the Baptist
Martin Landau … Caiaphas
Angela Lansbury … Claudia
Janet Margolin … Mary of Bethany
David McCallum (I) … Judas Iscariot
Roddy McDowall … Matthew
Sal Mineo … Uriah
Donald Pleasence … The Dark Hermit/Satan
Sidney Poitier … Simon of Cyrene
Claude Rains … King Herod
Telly Savalas … Pontius Pilate
John Wayne … The Centurion
Shelley Winters … Woman of No Name
Ed Wynn … Old Aram
Robert Loggia … Joseph
Robert Blake … Simon the Zealot
John Considine … John
Jamie Farr … Thaddaeus
Peter Mann (I) … Nathanael
Harold Stone … General Varus
John Crawford (I) … Alexander
Russell Johnson (I) … Scribe
John Abbott (I) … Aben
Frank DeKova … The Tormentor
Mark Lenard … Bathazar
Hmm Hit the submit button to soon
I was going to add **How The West Was Won **
Carroll Baker … Eve Prescott
Lee J. Cobb … Marshal Lou Ramsey
Henry Fonda … Jethro Stuart
Carolyn Jones (I) … Julie Rawlings
Karl Malden … Zebulon Prescott
Gregory Peck … Cleve Van Valen
George Peppard … Zeb Rawlings
Robert Preston (I) … Roger Morgan
Debbie Reynolds … Lillith Prescott
James Stewart … Linus Rawlings
Eli Wallach … Charlie Gant
John Wayne … General William Tecumseh Sherman
Richard Widmark … Mike King
Walter Brennan … Col. Jeb Hawkins
David Brian … Lilith’s attorney
Andy Devine (I) … Corporal Peterson
Raymond Massey (I) … Abraham Lincoln
Agnes Moorehead … Rebecca Prescott
Harry Morgan … General Ulysses S. Grant (as Henry
Thelma Ritter … Agatha Clegg
Russ Tamblyn … Confederate deserter
Spencer Tracy … Narrator (voice)
I don’t think Altman’s movies can really qualify becaues many of them are cameos. It’s just the gimmick factor.
Wargames is on right now. While not necessarily big stars, it did have some people who eventually became famous.
Mathew Broderick
Dabney Coleman
Ally Sheedy
Barry Corbin (guy from Northerm Exposure)
John Spencer (Leo on West Wing)
Michael Madsen (Mr. Blonde)
Eddie Deezen, that goofy nerdy, Devo type looking guy who was also in Grease.