I finally got around to seeing Radio flyer for the firs time and found it odd Tom Hanks received (or possibly took) no screen credit. This was between Bonfire of the Vanities and Philadelphia so it’s not like he wouldn’t be recognized anyway. There was some criticism when it was released about the beaten child. Was there anything at the time that he was averse to that or possibly that he just had the feeling the film was going to tank?
Did he play a big part? If not, maybe he didn’t want his name to dominate the cast list.
He’s onscreen for like 90 seconds IIRC.
I understand that having your name in the credits automatically kicks up your pay grade. Hanks might have forgone that, in order to help the film keep its budget down.
Bill Murray was not featured at all in the up front credits for " Tootsie ". This was by choice.
Bruce Willis was uncredited in Four Rooms.
According to the excellent Hollywood book “Hit and Run”, Hanks was hired originally to play one of the children as an adult. The production was very troubled, and most of Hanks’ scenes were cut from the movie due to poor test scores. So either Hanks didn’t feel his part counted as a major role anymore, or he didn’t want to be associated with a movie the whole industry felt would tank.
I think it’s a great movie. Elijah Wood is astonishingly good, and the way they play the whole film through the eyes of the kids, with low angles, and fantasy sequences exaggerated in a way that a kid would think.
I also support the theory that the younger brother never existed and was a compartmental personality that the boy made to deal with the abuse, which as he got older he no longer needed so could send away on a flying toy wagon.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Tom Hanks’s cameo was a favour for Richard Donner and was so small it didn’t really deserve much of a credit.
In the first release of Young Frankenstein, Gene Hackman wasn’t credited for his cameo as “Blind Old Man”. I think he enjoyed it too much to be concerned about credits.
More like three or four minutes at the beginning and another minute or so at the end, bookending the film. Also he had lots of narration during the course of the film, not generally a good sign the director/writer knows where they’re going.
All in all, not a major part, but far more than a cameo, kind of like Peter Falk in The Princess Bride.
It’s fairly standard for a big actor appearing in a small part in a moderate-budget film to agree to keep their name off the credits and to be paid a fairly small amount for their appearance. Sometimes they have their name right at the end of the acting credits saying something like “And with . . .” They do this as a favor to the director or writer of the film.