The Best Movie Cameos

24th October 2012

A cameo appearance is a movie convention that involves the appearance of a character, usually for only a short period of time often appearing as themselves. One of the first cameo roles was of director Alfred Hitchcock, appearing as an unnamed extra acquiring a drink at the bar in one of his earlier films Notorious (1946). Since then many actors, celebrities and even politicians have tried their hand at cameo appearances, the idea in general becoming a huge game of ‘where’s Wally’ for cinema buffs. Here is a list of really cool cameos that you may have missed:

George A. Romero – Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Now this one is far less obvious, in fact, not too many people know about the king of zombies, George Romero’s presence in this film, but he is in there. The director of one of the most successful zombie franchises known to the land of movies appeared as a jailer to Hannibal Lecter as he is being held in his Tennessee cell. Romero doesn’t have any lines and is no way significant to the plot of the film, perhaps he just wanted to be part of it!

Steve Buscemi – Pulp Fiction (1994)

This is another one for the real hawkeyed film buffs out there. The actor Steve Buscemi appears for only a few minutes as a talking character in Tarantino’s cult classic Pulp Fiction. He is featured as the waiter, known as Buddy Holly thanks to his uniform at the themed diner, who takes the food order for characters Vincent Vega and Mia Wallace just before their infamous dance scene. Buscemi has a couple of lines, the most notable being when he turns to Uma Thurman’s character Mia and asks, “How ‘bout you Peggy Sue’.

Bill Murray – Zombieland (2009)

Ok Murray’s role is fairly blatant in the zombie themed humorous blood fest that is Zombieland but he is referred to as himself and his role is short and somewhat meaningless to the plot of the film in general making it a standard cameo. Like most cameo roles Murray’s appearance was simply for novelty factor and his untimely demise (eaten by zombies) was probably the best way for his presence to end in this film.

Chris Martin – Shaun of the Dead (2004)

In the Simon Pegg written zombie spoof film which has numerous cinematic hat tips to zombie movies from throughout the 20^th Century, feature a myriad of stars, Chris Martin of Coldpaly being just one of them. The many others include Trisha Goddard who performs as herself in a fictionalised zombie version of her talk show, famous British newsreaders Carole Barnes, Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Jeremy Thompson as well as comedians and comic actors mainly dressed as zombies, including Rob Brydon, Paul Putner, Joe Cornish, Mark Donovan (Black Books) and Michael Smiley (Tyres in Spaced) and not to forget TV presenter Vernon Kay.

You can spot Chris just next to the phone box in this short clip:

Notable Mention:

Brad Pitt and Matt Damon appear in The Dating Game in the film Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002)

This article was put together by UK Cinema chain Vue Cinemas.

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