Time to reveal our best movie cameos by A-list Hollywood stars
The movie cameo has proven a great way to add a little memorable ‘spice’ to a film. By bringing in an A-list celebrity to appear in a single scene, a film can massively beef up its credentials. Everyone from the current president of United States, Donald Trump to movie megastar Tom Cruise has appeared in a cameo.
Believe it or not, but a well-performed cameo can actually steal the show from the main actors, as this list will show. Over the years, there have been a number of movie stopping cameos that have lodged in viewer’s minds. All of these show just how memorable a good cameo can be.
This list of the Best Movie Cameos of all-time is packed with amazing performances that just couldn’t help stealing the show.
Pulp Fiction – Christopher Walken
Quentin Tarantino’s trademark is his ultra-slick dialogue. His film Reservoir Dogs gained him the financial backing to make his worldwide blockbuster film, Pulp Fiction. The film would shake up the movie business and prove that a well written original film could compete with the action blockbuster.
The film would be praised for its script, direction, and acting, as well as its interesting new style that is full of references to past films. While lead actors John Travolta, Bruce Willis and Uma Thurman put in award-winning performances, it was a 5-minute cameo by Christopher Walken that for many, stole the show.
He plays a soldier who has just returned from Vietnam to return a watch belonging to the son of a fellow prisoner. In his monologue, Walken explains how he came to end up with the watch, which includes him telling the boy a strange and disturbing tale of having to keep the watch ‘up my ass’ for two years. This is one of the most hilarious cameos ever and is perfectly delivered with all Walken’s innate humor and strangeness.
Wedding Crashers – Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell once said that he hoped that one day comedy acting would receive recognition for being the real art form that it is. Well, his performance in the film Wedding Crashers highlights just what a great comedy actor he really is. In two short scenes, he managed to get the best laughs of the film and completely steal the wind out of the sails of the two main characters.
Ferrell played the character Chaz, an unscrupulous ‘player’ who has come up with a novel way to get girls. He crashes funerals where the girls are ‘so horny that it isn’t even fair’. The scene where the leading character attends a funeral with Chaz, who makes a total spectacle of himself, had audiences wetting themselves with laughter.
Alec Baldwin – Glengarry Glen Ross
Glengarry Glen Ross features an all-star cast that included Al Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Jack Lemon, and Ed Harris. It might seem a sheer impossibility that a cameo appearance would be able to upstage all of these amazing actors, but that’s exactly what Alec Baldwin managed.
He features as a lead salesman who gets sent from the head office in order to ‘straighten out’ the underperforming salesmen in the office. He is the ultimate alpha male aggressive salesman that would even scare American Psycho’s, Patrick Bateman. On a rain-soaked night, he calls the office together and gives a speech that few will ever forget.
John Hurt – Spaceballs
The second he gave a performance where Alien bursts through his chest, actor John Hurt cemented his place in film history. Director Mel Brooks certainly appreciated the scene as he got Hurt to reprise the role in his film Spaceballs.
In a space café in the middle of the galaxy, the main characters are shocked when yet again Alien bursts from Hurt’s chest but this time begins to sing and dance on a countertop. After you have seen this scene it will be hard to ever watch the original again without raising a smile.
Bill Murray – Zombieland (2009)
Bill Murray is famous for turning up at parties and other social gatherings unannounced. So it is perhaps unsurprising that he would choose to pop in for the odd cameo or two. The film Zombieland came along on the back of a new wave of American horror movies that began in the early 2000’s.
In a world overrun by Zombies, it is quite surprising that anyone should run into Bill Murray, the famous Hollywood actor. But that’s what happens in this zombie apocalypse. Murray delivers his lines with his usual razor-sharp dry wit and steals the big laughs as the lead characters think he has become a zombie.
Keith Richards – Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End
It was rumored that Johnny Depp based the quirky bizarre mannerisms of Captain Jack Sparrow on his friend Keith Richards. When Richards turned up in this movie as Jack’s long-lost father, it was revealing just how much Depp had actually borrowed from him. While only appearing briefly onscreen, the father-son resemblance was uncanny.
Sean Connery, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
The movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves made actor Kevin Costner into a superstar. Despite never explaining why Robin Hood had an American accent, the film was a global blockbuster. Scenes where Costner bared his naked bum while taking a bath and him shooting two arrows at once to save the day might have impressed audiences but it was the appearance of King Richard that stole the show.
Played by actor Sean Connery, Richard arrives just in time to interrupt Robin Hood’s wedding. After the traditional invitation for ‘any man who objects to the marriage to say now’, Connery’s unmistakable voice cries out “I do”. Thankfully, it is only to give his blessing before allowing the marriage to proceed. Connery was reported to have received over a million dollars for his few minutes onscreen. Not a bad day at the office all things considered.
Leonard Nimoy, ‘Star Trek’
The appearance of the beloved Leonard Nimoy in the revamped Star Trek series delighted fans everywhere. Having appeared in a majority of the films and series at some point or another, with his longing to understand what it means to be human and his utter adherence to everything logical, Leonard Nimoy’s Spock had become loved by fans everywhere.
At the time, no one knew that this would be Leonard Nimoy’s last appearance in the Star Trek franchise, as sadly he died shortly after.
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