Greatest Film Director
Cameos
(in their own films)

Part 2



Greatest Film Director Cameos (in their own films)
(alphabetical, by film title)
Part 1 | Part 2

Greatest Film Director Cameos (in films of others)
(chronological, by film title)
Part 1 | Part 2

Greatest Film Director Cameos (in their own films)
(alphabetical, by film title - Part 2)
Part 1 | Part 2
Film Title
Description of Cameo
Example
Good Night and Good Luck. (2005) George Clooney had a supporting role as Edward R. Murrow's (David Straithern) loyal producer Fred Friendly.
Gremlins (1984) Executive producer Steven Spielberg, seen in the background in the gadget convention scene - he appeared as a bearded inventor in a fancy electric-powered wheelchair (with a TV built-in), since he had a plaster cast on one leg.
Groundhog Day (1993) Harold Ramis as a neurologist that Phil Connors (Bill Murray) visited in his desperation to find the cause of his time-trapped situation.
Harold and Maude (1971) Hal Ashby (uncredited) in a brief cameo as a long-haired hippie at an arcade in an amusement park/carnival, who was watching a mechanical toy train -- "Bearded Man Watching Model Train" -- with Harold (Bud Cort) and Maude (Ruth Gordon).
The King of Comedy (1982) Martin Scorsese as a TV director, who says the minor line to actor Tony Randall (as Himself): "Take the tissues out of your collar and let's go" while he was backstage, substituting as the host for the kidnapped show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis).
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) David Lean as a Motorcyclist at the Suez Canal who cries out twice to T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole): "Who are you?"
Lightning Over Water (1980) Nicholas Ray and Wim Wenders as Themselves.  
The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Two Towers (2002)
The Return of the King (2003)

Peter Jackson appeared briefly in each of his trilogy's films:

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001): as drunken peasant Albert Dreary eating a carrot, and a citizen of Bree

The Two Towers (2002): as a Helm's Deep guard, costumed in chain mail as a Rohirrim Warrior, and throwing a gold-tipped spear to defend the gate

The Return of the King (2003): as the boatswain or pirate captain of a Corsair of Umbar ship

Jackson also made brief cameo appearances in Bad Taste (1987) as Derek/Robert, in Dead-Alive (1992) (aka Braindead) as the Undertaker's Assistant, in Heavenly Creatures (1994) as a panhandling Bum outside a theatre who was kissed by Juliet Hulme, and in The Frighteners (1996) as a Biker Man with Piercings



The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) Director Steven Spielberg could be found in a very small role eating popcorn and seated on a sofa (only seen faintly in the TV's glass reflection), in the final scene when Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), and Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester) were watching a CNN Live report of the T-Rex being transported back to the "Lost World" of Isla Sorna after it had gone on a rampage in San Diego
Margin for Error (1943) Otto Preminger as Karl Baumer, head of German consulate and a lover of gambling.  
Mean Streets (1973)

Martin Scorsese as the uncredited gunman Jimmy Shorts who shot "Johnny Boy" (Robert DeNiro) and Charlie Cappa (Harvey Keitel) at the end of the film from the back seat of a car; to add another layer of meaning, he was also visible for a split instant in a "portrait" of Charlie in the opening flashback of home movies/main title credits sequence, and Scorsese also served as the interior voice of Charlie when he was kneeling and praying in church in one of the film's earlier scenes -- delivering the off-screen narrated line: "Lord, I'm not worthy to eat your flesh, not worthy to drink your blood."



The Muppet Movie (1979) James Frawley as an El Sleazo waiter (Kermit: "This guy's lost." Frawley: "Maybe he should try Hare Krishna." Kermit: "Good grief, it's a running gag.")
Never on Sunday (1960) (aka Pote tin Kyriaki) Jules Dassin as Homer Thrace, an amateur philosopher from Middletown, Connecticut, who journeys to Greece to study Melina Mercouri as Illya, a freelance prostitute in the port city of Piraeus
New Nightmare (1994) Wes Craven portrayed Himself.
Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959) Edward D. Wood, Jr. had a cameo as a man holding a Hollywood Chronicle newspaper, with the headlines screaming "SAUCERS SEEN OVER HOLLYWOOD"

[Wood also had a famous lead role as the title character(s) of Glen or Glenda (1953) under the pseudonym of Daniel Davis.]

Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino as snotty suburbanite Jimmie Dimmick, where cleanup of a bloody mishap occurred.
 
Raging Bull (1980) Martin Scorsese as a Barbizon stagehand (whose shoulder is glimpsed in the mirror) informing Jake LaMotta (Robert DeNiro), in the film's conclusion, that he has five minutes before going on stage.
Reservoir Dogs (1992) Quentin Tarantino played the ill-fated Mr. Brown, the driver who was shot in the head during a botched jewelry store heist and died soon after.
Saint Jack (1979) Peter Bogdanovich as Eddie Schuman, a shadowy, covert Army operative who bankrolls a bordello in Singapore.  
Shivers (1975) David Cronenberg had a brief part as an extra.
Signs (2002) Veterinarian Ray Reddy (director Shyamalan in a cameo) explained to his widower neighbor Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) how he was responsible for Hess' wife's death in a crash 6 months earlier. He expressed remorse and guilt over the accident, and then told Graham that the aliens that were invading into the area through crop circles in cornfields detested water. He also warned Graham that a giant alien was trapped or blocked in his kitchen pantry - and the figure's shadow could be seen moving around under the door.
Slacker (1991)

Writer/director/producer Richard Linklater (in his debut film) in an odd character role as "Should Have Stayed at Bus Station." He was the first on-screen character, who emerged from a Trailways bus in Austin, Texas, and then hopped into a Roy's taxi cab, where he hassled the indifferent, bored driver with a description of a weird, empty dream he had just had (in which "nothing was going on at all" - he was just reading and flipping through TV stations), and a strange monologue about the crossroads' decision of Dorothy and the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz (1939), expressing his manic, stream-of-consciousness belief that each alternate path or direction not chosen acquired a life of its own ("All those other directions, just because they thought about it, became separate realities").


Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (1984)

Leonard Nimoy (in his directorial debut) reprised his role as a newly-regenerated Captain Spock, through the Genesis Effect after his katra (living soul) was restored from Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) in a ritualistic refusion ceremony called fal-tor-pan on the planet Vulcan; he began to remember his past in the film's finale as he stood face-to-face with old friend Admiral James Kirk (William Shatner), telling him: "Jim. Your name is Jim," to which Kirk replied simply: "Yes" as the film ended.

Nimoy also directed himself in a larger role as Spock in the blockbuster Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).



Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) George Lucas dressed in alien garb as Baron Papanoida.
Staying Alive (1983) Sylvester Stallone as a man on the street who bumped into Tony Monero (John Travolta).
The Story of Adele H. (1975) Francois Truffaut as Officer (uncredited).  
Summertime (1955) David Lean as a Man in a Cafe.  
Taxi Driver (1976)

Martin Scorsese portrayed a lunatic cab passenger, a scary-acting, mustached, middle-aged individual who insisted that Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro) pull over to the curb, keep the meter running, and just sit. He was the agonized husband of a cheating wife who watched her scantily-clad silhouette in the lit second-story window of another man's apartment, and described a homicidal plan - a fantasy of murdering his adulterous wife and her black partner with a .44 Magnum.

Scorsese also has brief cameos in Raging Bull (1980) as a Barbizon stagehand, The King of Comedy (1983) as a TV Director, After Hours (1985) as a Club Berlin Searchlight Operator, The Color of Money (1986) as the opening voice-over Narrator, The Age of Innocence (1993) as a Photographer, Bringing Out the Dead (1999) as the Voice of a Dispatcher, and Gangs of New York (2002) as a Wealthy Homeowner.

The Tenant (1976) (aka Le Locataire) Roman Polanski as the title character Trelkovsky, a tenant renting an apartment of a recent suicide in Paris, who soon became paranoid, disturbed, and cross-dressed like the previous suicidal tenant Simone Choule.
That Thing You Do! (1996) Tom Hanks (in his directorial debut) in a supporting role as Mr. White, the cynical-but-caring rock-and-roll manager of a (fictional) '60s pop-rock band called The Wonders.
The Third Man (1949) Carol Reed starred as the fingers of Harry Lime (Orson Welles), extending up through a Viennese sewer grating.
This is Spinal Tap (1984) Rob Reiner (in his directorial debut film) took a major role as 'mockumentary' film-maker Marty DiBergi.
 
Tootsie (1982) Sydney Pollack took a substantial role as George Fields, the impatient and irritable agent of discriminated, unemployed actor Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman), warning that no one will hire him, exclaiming "You're psychotic!" and "I'm your agent, not your mother!"
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) John Huston made an early appearance in this film as an affluent gentleman in a White Suit, whom down-and-out dirty, unshaven, ragged scrounger and panhandler, Fred C. Dobbs "Dobbsie" (Humphrey Bogart), asked twice for a handout ("Hey mister, could you stake a fellow American to a meal?"), in hot, mid-1920s Tampico, Mexico. After a third request, the White-Suited Man rebuked Dobbs after one more donation: "But from now on, you have to make your way through life without my assistance."
The Trial (1963)

Orson Welles had a bit role as a trial advocate named Hastler, who reprised the opening parable of "The Man and the Country" to Joseph K (Anthony Perkins) at the climactic moment of the film.

 
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) David Lynch portrayed FBI Agent Dale Cooper's (Kyle MacLachlan) supervisor Gordon Cole, an FBI Regional Bureau Chief, in a small role.
 
Waking Life (2001) Richard Linklater was the voice of one of the animated characters, the Pinball Playing Man, who talked about sci-fi author Philip K. Dick and Yeats patron Lady Gregory, and offered direct advice about waking up: "Just wake up."
Wall Street (1987) Oliver Stone took a small role as a stock trader, who invested in the hot stock of Anacot Steel, in a brief appearance during a 3-way split screen sequence or montage, exclaiming to his broker on the phone: "Take it and bid it!"


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