I just finished a complete rewatch of Buffy and Angel and for the first time noticed a minor character getting prominent listing in the closing credits of the final episode of Angel: Ryan Alvarez as Pee Pee Demon. I can only imagine listing that in your acting credits: “You may remember me as Pee Pee Demon. While being a demon I smelled my fingers and said ‘Pee Pee’.”
Some more named characters that don’t look particularly great on a resume?
Robert Ruth in Pulp Fiction got named “Coffee Shop”, because he said “I’m not a hero; I’m just a coffee shop manager” but you can’t really hear the last word very well, because someone yells over him.
Lawrence Bender, while better known for being a producer, is credited as “Long Hair Yuppie-Scum” in several movies, including Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, and Fresh.
A similar thing happened for the first season of Gilligan’s Island. In the opening theme song, the Professor and Mary Ann were simply referred to as “the rest”; the characters, along with the actors’ real names (Russell Johnson and Dawn Wells, respectively), were conspicuously left out.
In “Young Guns”, Tom Cruise makes a brief appearance as a minor henchman who is shot off the top of a roof. How do you phrase that on a resume?
Kevin Costner as a corpse in The Big Chill?
Are we including other than how the actors were actually credited? Kevin Costner is listed as “Alex” in the movie credits of The Big Chill. There was actual footage filmed of his character still alive, but the scenes were cut except for the corpse.
There’s that one guy who has played a latino gangbanger named Hector in about 20 movies/shows. His name is not even Hector.
Henchman
Henchman #2
Murphy henchman (uncredited) (actual IMDB listing)
This is why I always say (to whoever listens) make sure your character has a name. Even if it never gets mentioned. If not, at least be Henchman #1, or gang member #1. Be noticed!
Except don’t let your character be named Guy.
Actress Marilyn Dodds Frank has a rather dubious credit to put on a resume from the movie Kinjite (1989).
Jerome Thor has a pretty good bad one there, too.
Who can forget Gina Mastogiacomo as “Is this some kind of a bust?” in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear?
In fact, if you look at the full cast list for that movie, more than 20 people have a line of dialog for their character name. Including Weird Al Yankovic as “You pigs…say your prayers.”
Kirk Thatcher was “Punk on Bus” in Star Trek IV. That was almost the beginning and end of his acting career. That is until they brought him back as the same character in Star Trek: Picard. Despite his abbreviated acting career he’s been very busy as a producer, director and writer.
From Animal House -
Mean Dude
Meaner Dude
Meanest Dude
Gigantic Dude
From Airplane! -
Upside-Down Man
Windshield Wiper Man
Commuter on Baggage Carousel
Bouncy Topless Woman on Plane
From Star Trek (TOS) -
First Fop
Second Fop
Laughing Crewman
Blond Girl
Redheaded Boy
Vulcan Litter Bearer (three of them)
Sam Raimi is famous for giving people the movie credit “Fake Shemp”.
Anne Sellors was originally uncredited as she didn’t have a speaking part. But her role was so iconic that people tracked her down and added her to IMDB.
Threads. Woman who urinates on herself.
Roger Mazwell gets credited as “Beef-faced colonel” in Doctor Zhivago. In a career that lasted almost 50 years, this is his headline credit, as far as IMDB is concerned.
On the first episode of Monk, Jason Gray-Stanford was credited as Lt. Deacon. For the rest of the series he was Randy Disher. So, apparently they got the name of the character wrong in the credits.
“Lesbian Pedophile” for the curious.
A very famous one is Quentin Tarantino in Planet Terror as “Rapist #1”
Going with another Charles Bronson classic, Jeff Goldblum is credited in Death Wish as “Freak 1.” It is his first credited role and he gets a couple of very NSFW lines of dialogue.