20 major movie stars in small movie cameos

Bill Murray is kind of the cameo king. Now, his cameos in movies like Zombieland and (SPOILER) Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania are on the meatier side. However, he literally plays himself in Zombieland, so that counts for something. Perhaps you prefer his cameos in films like Get Smart or The Darjeeling Limited.

Damon is also a real aficionado at cameos. He’s maybe the only memorable thing about Road Trip, and he’s fun in Thor: Ragnarok (and overused in Love and Thunder). Also, he and Ben Affleck lampoon themselves together in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back.

Anchorman and its sequel are both laden with cameos. They really threw as many people as they could into the fight scenes. Among the cameos in the first film, Stiller is probably the biggest star. Although, Jack Black is a bit funnier.

One of Depp’s first big roles was on the TV show 21 Jump Street. Eventually, that show was used as fodder for a knowing action-comedy film. While Depp had largely left 21 Jump Street behind him, he did pop up in the show. 

Now, Bowie is a music icon, but he also starred in a couple of films. Labyrinth might mean a lot to you if you are of a certain age. Speaking of Stiller, in his comedy Zoolander, Bowie has a delightful cameo as himself. So does Garry Shandling, but he’s not a movie star.

Charlie Sheen starred in a couple of Top Gun parodies called Hot Shots and Hot Shots: Part Deux. The second film is a little sweaty, but it does have one fun moment. Martin Sheen cameos as himself but also parodies his turn in Apocalypse Now. On top of that, these two are a father-son duo, of course.

Let’s get a little lady love in the mix. Cate Blanchett is a great actor, with two Oscars to show for it. Her cameo in Hot Fuzz is still easy to miss, though. After all, you don’t see her face. Yes, Blanchett has an obscured cameo in Edgar Wright’s cop movie pastiche.

Hamill will forever be a legend for playing Luke Skywalker, even if it is his only significant movie role. What a role, though! He also cameos in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, but we won’t divulge his character’s name here for the sake of keeping things PG.

From the day Citizen Kane hit theaters, Welles was en route to being one of the biggest movie legends of all time. Getting him to pop up in a cameo was a big get, and Jim Henson did it. Welles lends his gravitas to The Muppet Movie, where he plays the Hollywood bigwig who gives the Muppets their start.

Wayne’s World had Alice Cooper, but he isn’t a movie star. Wayne’s World 2 , on the other hand, has, well, Heather Locklear — and Heston. The legendary star of films like Planet of the Apes plays a “good actor” who is subbed into the film to give it a little extra flair.

Hogan never made a good movie, but he did star in several films. He’s also one of the biggest pro wrestlers ever. While we really enjoyed the cameos by Paul Bartel and Leonard Maltin personally, Hogan has a nice, weird moment in Joe Dante’s bonkers Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

While Jack Black is talking about The Graduate in The Holiday, you briefly see Hoffman in an uncredited cameo. Weirdly, this was not written into the script. Hoffman was literally just going to Blockbuster and saw that Nancy Meyers was shooting a film, and Meyers then wrote a brief scene for him to pop up in.

Close has infamously been nominated for eight acting Oscars without winning. Only Peter O’Toole has been nominated that many times without emerging with an award. None of her nominations were for her turn in Hook, where she plays Gutless. You may not have noticed her, as she is hidden behind a beard.

Gellar is more a TV star than a film star, but she had a few notable films if you are of a certain age. The same year she starred in Cruel Intentions, the once-and-future Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a wordless cameo simply credited as “Girl in Cafeteria” in She’s All That. You know, a film right in her target audience.

Madonna, like Hulk Hogan, is better known for something other than acting. However, we will say Madonna has a better filmography than the Hulkster. Die Another Day is considered arguably the nadir of the James Bond series and definitely the worst Pierce Brosnan film in the series. Madonna’s cameo as a fencer (as in the sport) certainly earned some eye rolls, if also plenty of “Hey, it’s Madonna!” asides in theaters.

Pitt lent his face to his buddy George Clooney in his directorial debut, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. That’s not his most notable cameo, though. Instead, it’s Pitt’s brief moment as the Marvel character Vanisher in Deadpool 2, a movie rife for a cameo of that ilk.

An older name, to be sure, but a renowned one. In his Old Hollywood career, he was in dozens of films, was nominated for several Oscars, and won one. Huston has an uncredited cameo in The Maltese Falcon as a character who quickly keels over and dies. The actor was doing a solid, as that film marked the directorial debut of the soon-to-be legend John Huston, Walter’s son.

Personally, we’d call Cruise's turn as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder too big of a role for a cameo. He did have a cameo in Young Guns, though, and we are mostly thinking of Cruise’s turn as Austin Powers, sort of, in Austin Powers in Goldmember.

There are a lot of cameos in Goldmember, which was really going all out to try and keep people interested. We don’t want to name them all, but we will shout out Paltrow, who plays opposite Cruise’s turn as “Austin Powers.” Paltrow’s character’s name, um, well, let’s just say her first name is Dixie.

Aykroyd, like his former co-star Murray, loves himself a cameo. In fact, he had two of them in 1995 alone. One was in Canadian Bacon, a largely forgotten satire directed by Michael Moore. However, he also played Raymond Stantz, his character from Ghostbusters, in the family film Casper.