The 32 greatest movie cameos
Sep. 6, 2024Some famous famous appear for a brief moment, but they steal the whole show
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For all its somber seriousness and interrogations of the human condition that movies are capable of, they’re also just a good time. Which is why, when a famous face shows up for a fun cameo, you know there’s good vibes happening behind the scenes. But what celebrity cameos are actually the greatest of all time?
Loosely deriving from the term “cameo” – meaning a short sketch or portrait, usually referring to miniature carvings – cameos are now synonymous with brief appearances by other famous people in movies where they’re not the main attraction. Cameos aren’t limited to other actors either, with athletes, politicians, musicians, and even other filmmakers showing up in movies for cameos. The legendary Alfred Hitchcock, for example, is remembered for finding clever ways to insert himself in his own movies.
While there are no strict rules as to what constitutes a cameo, they are technically limited to walk-on appearances – an inconsequential, often nameless part. (Just as often, the cameo is the celebrity playing themselves.) To commemorate this fun part of movie culture, we’ve decided to rank the 32 greatest cameos in movie history.
Because even filmmakers these days play it fast and loose with what counts as a “cameo,” let’s set some parameters. In limiting cameos to a single appearance for a single scene, we’ll rule out some frequently mentioned “cameos” like Mike Tyson in The Hangover, Bill Murray in Zombieland, Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder, whose 10 minutes of screentime kind of disqualifies it as a “cameo.” Nor will we include any of the major faces who show up inDeadpool & Wolverine, as their lengthy fight scenes required a lot more time and preparation to shoot than a typical cameo. And speaking of Marvel movies, we’re going to exclude Stan Lee’s many, many cameos in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Because you know them already.
Without further ado, here’s some famous faces in famous movies you probably didn’t expect to see.
31. James Franco in Knocked Up (2007)
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Jim Starlin may not be a known entity outside comic book fandom. But the world should know him as the artist and creator of Thanos, the ultimate bad guy ever to dominate a superhero franchise. A short year after Thanos snapped half the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe away in Avengers: Infinity War, Thanos' creator Jim Starlin makes a brief appearance in Avengers: Endgame as one of the people sitting with Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) in the post-Blip therapy group. Starlin has one line of dialogue, “What about you?” which is directed to another cameo, played by the movie’s co-director Joe Russo.
Consider this proof that The Princess Diaries takes place somewhere in the Marvel multiverse. The Generalissimo appears as a foreign wedding guest whose only grasp of English is from The Three Stooges, which leads to a gross (and hilarious) misunderstanding when he accidentally hits on Julie Andrews' Queen Renaldi. With The Princess Diaries 2 predating the explosive popularity of the MCU and Lee’s many known appearances in those movies, his appearance here is a bizarre but precious novelty.
While Tom Cruise’s unannounced appearance in Tropic Thunder is whatmostpeople tend to name as the movie’s best cameo, it’s technically not a cameo at all. With a whopping 10 minutes of screentime and a pivotal part in the story, Cruise’s Les Grossman is really a supporting role. Which is why the movie’s best cameo isactuallyTobey Maguire. The Spider-Man star appears as himself in a fake movie trailer for Satan’s Alley, where he gives bedroom eyes to award-winning “actor” Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr., in the role that earned him his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2009 Oscars).
Writer/director Adam McKay knows that explaining the finer details regarding the 2007-2008 financial crisis is not what you’d call “movie worthy.” Which is why it’s a stroke of genius how he trots out celebrities like Anthony Bourdain and Selena Gomez to plainly summarize complex ideas like “synthetic CDOs” while cooking salmon or playing poker. The movie also has a cameo from Margot Robbie just two years after her breakout performance in The Wolf of Wall Street. The soon-to-be Barbie star helpfully walks audiences through the mind-numbing, sleep-inducing concept of subprime mortgages in a bubble bath, because, well, how else can you make that lecture sound exciting?
It’s a cameo so good you don’t see it coming - literally. While the Deadpool sequel has an array of guest appearances, including Alan Tudyk, Matt Damon, and pretty much everyone from the X-Men film franchise, the greatest cameo among them is without a doubt Brad Pitt. The famous actor appears in a literal blink-and-you’ll-miss-him capacity, playing the role of the invisible (and mute) superhero The Vanisher. It’s not until the hilarious death scene of the entire X-Force when The Vanisher’s face is revealed to be played by Pitt.
Filmmakers Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez make up one of Hollywood’s most visible, strongest friendships. The two have not only collaborated before - like with their 2007 project Grindhouse - but have worked on each other’s sets, sometimes for as little as a single dollar. Rewinding the clock back to 1995, Rodriguez was still making his way into Hollywood when he got the chance to helm a big budget sequel to his ‘93 indie sensation El Mariachi. Tarantino, who blew up the Cannes Film Festival a year earlier with his seminal picture Pulp Fiction, shows up in the cameo role of a “Pick-Up Guy” who spends a long time telling a convoluted dirty joke to a bartender (Cheech Marin, another big cameo in the movie).
Two Hulks is too much for one movie to contain. But in 2008, The Incredible Hulk - the first Hulk movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe - staged a very fun meeting between Edward Norton, who stars in the movie as Bruce Banner/The Hulk, and Lou Ferrigno, the champion bodybuilder who famously played the Hulk (no CGI needed) in the classic television series. Ferrigno appears in a cameo role as a college campus security guard who is unwittingly bribed by Norton’s Bruce Banner with pizza. Even Hulks can’t say no to free pizza.
When Mel Brooks roasted the booming science fiction genre with his 1987 classic Spaceballs, nothing was too sacred - not even Ridley Scott’s seminal feature Alien. At the end of Spaceballs, Bill Pullman and John Candy’s characters Lone Star and Barf pull up to a planetside diner when none other than Alien actor John Hurt shows up. In a recreation of his iconic death scene from the movie, another baby Xenomorph pops out of his belly, to which he responds: “Not again!”
Alfred Hitchcock made it vogue for directors to show up in their own movies. But Martin Scorsese’s cameo in his crime classic Taxi Driver is downright chilling. (And necessary: The actor originally meant to play the role fell ill, which forced Scorsese to step in.) Partway through the movie, Scorsese gets in the backseat of the cab driven by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), where he reveals to Travis his wife is cheating on him after they pull up to the apartment of her lover. In a small speech, Scorsese’s scorched husband confesses he’s going to kill his wife. The look on Travis’ face says it all, and it’s quite something when someone can make Travis look calm and well-adjusted.
Who you gonna call? Someone else. In the 1995 comedy Casper (you know, the friendly ghost?), Dan Aykroyd returns as his Ghostbusters character Ray Stantz, who is called in by the movie’s antagonists to rid a valuable old mansion of its mischievous ghost residents. But despite saving New York from Gozer and Vigo the Carpathian, the ghosts haunting Casper prove too powerful for him alone. (Why did he go alone, anyway?) Hilariously, Aykroyd wasn’t the only movie’s cameo. Before him, Don Novello appears as his SNL character Father Guido Sarducci who also tries, and fails, to get the ghosts out.
Huey Lewis and the News memorably contributed the song “The Power of Love” to Robert Zemeckis' iconic adventure hit Back to the Future. But that’s not the only time audiences hear Huey Lewis in the movie. In the audition scene for the Battle of the Bands, Huey Lewis appears as one of the judges. Marty McFly’s aggressive shredding over a cover of “The Power of Love” doesn’t amuse Huey Lewis, however, and his band The Pinheads get rejected from entry.
While Eminem is primarily known around the world as a rap artist, he is an underrated actor, having proven some of his chops in the movie 8 Mile. In 2008, Eminem demonstrated his funny bone when he played himself in a deliriously funny cameo for Judd Apatow’s Funny People. While the movie itself is actually an emotional dramaaboutcomedians, Eminem steals the show from even Adam Sandler when he unleashes a cuss-laden tirade against actor Ray Romano (also playing himself) and Seth Rogen. A few years later, Eminem played himself again in a different Seth Rogen film when he revealed his true orientation in The Interview.
It’s good to be the king. As Star Trek: The Next Generation approached its final season, series star Patrick Stewart dressed out of his Starfleet uniform and into the regal armor of King Richard for Mel Brooks' outrageous medieval satire Robin Hood; Men in Tights. Appearing at the end of the movie, King Richard takes back his sacred authority from his selfish brother John (Richard Lewis). In restoring dignity and glory to all of England, King Richard declares that all toilets will now be known as “johns.” All hail the king.
Tom Cruise as Austin Powers?Oh, behave!In the opening to the third Austin Powers movie, Mike Myers' shagadelic spy gets to see the making of a new movie - comically titled “Austinpussy” - that’s inspired by his impossible life. Sitting at the helm of this movie is Steven Spielberg, who is all too proud to take notes from the man himself. Meanwhile, suited up as Austin is none other than Tom Cruise, with Gwyneth Paltrow also starring as love interest “Dixie Normous.” (Get it? Yeah, of course you get it.) More awkwardly is Kevin Spacey as Dr. Evil, but Danny DeVito is also there as a gun-toting Mini-Me.
Imagine disappointing Bob Barker. Well, you don’t have to picture it, because that’s exactly what Adam Sandler did in the classic ’90s sports comedy Happy Gilmore. Halfway through the movie, Sandler’s hockey player-turned-golf wunderkind Happy Gilmore participates in a celebrity golf tournament, where he’s paired up with legendary The Price Is Right host Bob Barker. An unruly heckler (Joe Flaherty) throws Happy off his game, which disappoints Barker to the point they throw hands. And as it turns out, Barker’s gotmitts.
During production of the Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe, director Nahnatchka Khan and writer/star Ali Wong wanted Keanu Reeves but believed him to be too much of a pipe dream to get on board. As they prepared a list of alternatives, they made the ask to Reeves anyway, and to their delight, The Matrix and John Wick star was enthusiastically on board. Reeves shows up in the movie as Wong’s new love interest, playing an exaggerated version of himself for a disastrous double date. Reeves was so involved, he even pitched his own ideas to make his character over-the-top, and contributed suggestions to Randall Park’s song “I Punched Keanu Reeves.”
In Billy Wilder’s towering drama that interrogates the fleeting yet intoxicating allure of fame, the tragic Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) plays host to a game of bridge with other silent film icons. Sitting at the table are Anna Q. Nilsson, H.B. Warner, and Buster Keaton, who were all unstoppable titans once upon a time before “talkies” rendered them obsolete. While these silver screen darlings poetically get the chance to finallysaysomething in a movie, it’s Buster Keaton’s disappointed utterances of “Pass” that feel the most weighted. Keaton explicitly expresses knowing his career has passed by, but he’s still in the game. He awaits his chance to try again.
Eric Francisco is a freelance entertainment journalist and graduate of Rutgers University. If a movie or TV show has superheroes, spaceships, kung fu, or John Cena, he’s your guy to make sense of it. A former senior writer at Inverse, his byline has also appeared at Vulture, The Daily Beast, Observer, and The Mary Sue. You can find him screaming at Devils hockey games or dodging enemy fire in Call of Duty: Warzone.
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