10. Johnny Depp in ‘Freddy’s Dead: A New Nightmare’ (1991)
Johnny Depp’s first film was ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984), so it seemed appropriate that after finding fame with TV series ’21 Jump Street’ (1987-1990), and the beginning of his collaboration with Tim Burton with ‘Edward Scissorhands’ (1990), Johnny Depp paid an homage to his ‘roots’ by making a cameo in the 6th instalment of the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
We enter the world of stoner, and Freddy Kruger’s next target, Spencer (played by Breckin Meyer), who after smoking some weed goes into dream world, a TV with a broken screen switches on. Johnny Depp, credited in the movie as ‘Guy on TV’ explains the problems of drug usage with a frying pan and eggs, but as usual, Freddy Krueger upstages the seriousness of this horror movie into something almost comedic.
Best Line Delivered: “Alright, once again. This is your brain, and this is your brain on drugs.”
9. Alec Guinness in ‘Mute Witness’ (1995)
The circumstances of this cameo deserves a spot on this list, director Anthony Walker met Alec Guinness in 1985 and asked the talented actor to participate in a one scene cameo for a film he was writing.
Surprisingly Guinness said yes and waved any fee for this acting job. About ten years later there was a film to put it in. Probably one of the most bizarre cameos, but the film is definitely worth a go, in a Hitchcockian-style about a witness that sees a real murder on the set of a film.
Best Line Delivered: “Come closer, Mr. Hausmann. I won’t bite.”
8. Cate Blanchett in ‘Hot Fuzz’ (2007)
If you haven’t read about this yet, prepare to be wowed, it is another cameo that almost makes no sense, following the Alec Guinness cameo in ‘Mute Witness’ of course.
Considered by magazines to be one of the prettiest and most talented actress of the last decades, Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett makes a cameo in the second film collaboration between Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. The duo feature the actress completely covered in a crime scene investigation suit, where we basically only hear her voice.
Best Line Delivered: “Yes, but you were already married to the force, weren’t you?”
7. Gene Hackman in ‘Young Frankenstein’ (1974)
Another fantastic Mel Brooks film, sees Gene Hackman, a very serious actor playing a Blind Man in dire need of company. Who happens to knock on his door? It is Frankenstein’s creature. This is when the comedy gets great, kindness gone awry.
Trying to feed the creature, the Blind Man burns him with soup, trying to quench his thirst with wine, the Blind Man breaks his mug, and trying to celebrate this special occasion with cigars, he burns his fingers. If the creature wasn’t afraid of fire before, he is now.
Best Line Delivered: “Where are you going? I was gonna make expresso.”
6. Sydney Pollock in ‘Death Becomes Her’ (1992)
After Madeline (Meryl Streep) is pushed down the stairs in a fantastic feud with her husband Ernest (Bruce Willis), she finds herself in the hospital being examined by an on call doctor. You wouldn’t think that the doctor played by the director of ‘Out of Africa’ (1985) Sydney Pollock could manage to steal a scene from both Meryl Streep and Bruce Willis, but he does.
The doctor is examining Madeline, and for a moment, he thinks his instruments are not working as he can’t feel a heartbeat. The delivery of the action and lines of a doctor who is seeing something that goes against every thing he has witnessed and studied, a patient who is clinically dead but walking and talking, is absolutely brilliant.
Best Line Delivered: “I tell you what, kids, it’s uh, odd thing here. Your wrist, uh, far as I can tell, is, uh, fractured in three places. Uh, and you’ve shattered, uh, two vertebrae, though I can’t be certain without an X-ray… The bone protrusion through the skin – that’s not a good sign. Your body temperature is below 80, and your, your, your heart’s stopped beating.”
5. Huey Lewis in ‘Back to the Future’ (1985)
When our hero Marty McFly is auditioning his rock band to play at the school dance, a great instrumental version of ‘The Power of Love’ from Huey Lewis and the News is played. Mid song, Marty (played by Michael J. Fox), is interrupted by a man speaking through a megaphone.
The comment is about how loud their sound is, a fair comment from the preppy man, but the brilliance of director Robert Zemeckis is to cast Huey Lewis to deliver that line.
Best Line Delivered: “I am afraid you are too darn loud”.
4. Woody Harrelson in ‘Anger Management’ (2003)
If the film wasn’t funny, wait until it gets hilarious when we recognise Woody Harrelson’s dressed as a transvestite German prostitute named Galaxia.
Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) is using extreme therapy to try and cure his patient Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler), and in this scene we have Galaxia being paid money by the shrink to entertain the patient. Great performances all around, plus, you have Jack Nicholson, you can’t go wrong with him. Or can you?
Best Line Delivered: “I come from a little providence called Likkin Zee Dikkins. Wanna taste?”
3. Jack White in ‘Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story’ (2007)
The story follows the journey of singer/songwriter Dewey Cox, who’s had a rough childhood after accidentally maiming his brother in half with a machete. Many brilliant cameos in this almost mockumentary style film with John C. Reilly. Including: Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam’s lead singer, Jack Black, Paul Rudd, Justin Long and Jason Schwartzman.
It is a Judd Apatow production, so there are plenty of the Frat Pack cameo pool, but the ultimate and funniest out of the bunch, and if you do not pay attention you might miss it, Jack White as Elvis Presley. Elvis steps off the stage hipped up after a set. He quickly interacts with Dewey Cox and gives him all of Elvis in about 5 seconds.
Best Line Delivered: “It’s called Karate, man. Only two kind of people know it, The Chinese and The King. And one of them is me.”
2. John Hurt in ‘Spaceballs’ (1987)
Although Mel Brooks has a wonderful spoof of the first ‘Star Wars’ (1977) film, this reference is to another science fiction film, ‘Alien’ (1979), and probably one of the most famous scenes in science fiction today. What is brilliant about this John Hurt cameo is that he originally portrayed the same character with the same dilemma in ‘Alien’, a man in space with a creature breaking out of his stomach.
Best Line Delivered: “Oh no, not again.”
1. Charlton Heston in ‘Wayne’s World II’ (1993)
Not many great moments in this film compared to the first ‘Wayne’s World’ (1992). But this cameo tops all the rest brilliant but forgotten cameos. Charlton Heston, one of the biggest actors of his generation with films under his belt like ‘The Ten Commandments’ (1956) and ‘Ben Hur’ (1959), makes a brilliant cameo in such an unlikely film.
First there is a Bad Actor who comes and starts delivering a monologue about love, mid monologue, Wayne, played by Mike Myers, interrupts and breaks the fourth wall by asking the production team to do better, a second actor is placed on the right mark and we see that the Good Actor is Charlton Heston.
One Monologue Delivered: “Gordon Street? Ah, yes, I once knew a girl who lived on Gordon Street. Long time ago, when I was a young man. Not a day passes I don’t think of her and the promise that I made which I will always keep. That one perfect day on Gordon Street. That’s uh, five blocks up, two over.”
Author Bio: After watching ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and deciding she wanted to be Indiana Jones, Camila Boschiero decided to go for a film degree. After working in several productions, always behind the cameras of course, and a Masters degree in Communication at the University of the Arts London, she took up writing and researching. She is a fan of b-movies, and after watching ‘The Goonies’ and ‘Monster Squad’ she wanted to create her own gang of misfits kids.