List of directors who appear in their own films

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Several film directors have appeared in their own films, sometimes with an uncredited cameo, in a small walk-on role, or sometimes in a more major role.[1] The following lists directors who have appeared in their own films.[2]

Directors who regularly appear in their own films[]

Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in nearly all his films.
Mel Brooks has had acting roles of varying degrees in every single film he has directed.
Michael Moore has appeared in all his films
Orson Welles had roles in most of his films.
  • Dodo Abashidze in his films such as The Legend of Suram Fortress and Ashik Kerib.
  • Gautam Vasudev Menon a famous Indian director, regularly played cameo roles in almost all of his films and classics such as Vinnaithandi Vaaruvaya and Vaaranam Aayiram. He also played supporting roles in other films like Trance and Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal
  • Dev Anand regularly starred in or at least had a major role in most of his films.
  • Kenneth Branagh has starred in and directed many films.
  • Tinto Brass appears in almost all his films.
  • Mel Brooks has had prominent roles in most of his films.
  • Jan Bucquoy has appeared in many of his films.
  • James Cameron very briefly appeared in Titanic, as Leonardo DiCaprio's artist hands and as a bystander in the third-class dance sequence.
  • John Carpenter has had small roles in many of his films, as well as composing the score for several.
  • John Cassavetes in his films such as Opening Night.
  • Wes Craven has appeared in cameos in a few of his films.
  • William Dear has appeared in several films he has directed. His wife Susan and their son Oliver, now a director, has appeared in his productions.
  • Ruggero Deodato makes very brief cameos in most of his films.
  • Clint Eastwood, while originally well known just as an actor, since taking up directing, has starred or had a prominent role in nearly all his films.
  • Rainer Werner Fassbinder in his films such as Love Is Colder Than Death, Katzelmacher, Gods of the Plague, The American Soldier, Beware of a Holy Whore, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Marriage of Maria Braun, and Veronika Voss.
  • Lucio Fulci appeared in several of his later films, and even had a starring role in one of them.
  • Subhash Ghai has appeared in many of his films.[3]
  • Christopher Guest has prominent roles in many of his "mockumentaries".
  • Alfred Hitchcock made (often very brief) cameo appearances in nearly all of his films. See List of Alfred Hitchcock cameo appearances for more details.
  • Peter Jackson has made small cameo appearances in most of his films.
  • Terry Jones directed and appeared in all Monty Python films, as well as The Wind In The Willows, where he played Mr. Toad.
  • Buster Keaton regularly appeared in his own films.
  • Abbas Kiarostami appeared in his film Taste of Cherry.
  • Takeshi Kitano appears in almost all his films.
  • Fritz Lang made appearances in most of his films.[4]
  • Spike Lee had prominent roles in many of his early films.
  • Jørgen Leth in his films such as The Five Obstructions.
  • Michael Moore has starred in his own movies.
  • Tom Noonan in his films such as The Wife.
  • Perarasu has made cameo appearances in all of his films to date.
  • Tyler Perry has so far regularly starred in or at least had a major role in all but three of his films.
  • Roman Polanski has regularly appeared in his films, in both major and smaller roles.
  • S.S. Rajamouli, a Telugu film director regularly appears in his films.
  • K. S. Ravikumar makes a special appearance or sometimes appears in a supporting role in all his films.[5]
  • Jean Renoir in his films such as The Rules of the Game.
  • Robert Rodriguez makes small cameo appearances in most of his films. His most concealed role would be in the opening scene of The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, voicing a shark; most noticeable are in Sin City, where he played a member of the SWAT and in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For where he appears alongside Frank Miller in a film-noir movie on a TV.
  • Eli Roth has a small role in every film he has directed. In the latest Hostel movie, only his severed head is in it.
  • Eldar Ryazanov has had small roles in many of his films.
  • John Sayles has appeared in many of his films.
  • Martin Scorsese has appeared in a fair number of his films.
  • Lowell Sherman normally an actor, Sherman began directing when sound arrived. From there he also appeared in productions he directed.
  • Daryush Shokof has appeared in at least 4 of his films.
  • M. Night Shyamalan has so far had a small role in all but three of his films (Wide Awake, After Earth, and The Visit). His role in 2008's The Happening was his most concealed to date. (He was the voice on the phone that Zooey Deschanel was talking to throughout the film.)
  • Vilgot Sjöman in his films such as I Am Curious (Yellow) and I Am Curious (Blue).
  • Kevin Smith, as the character Silent Bob in all of the View Askewniverse films.
  • Quentin Tarantino, in both high-profile roles (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Grindhouse, and Django Unchained) and smaller roles (Jackie Brown, uncredited voice only).
  • Jacques Tati makes multiple appearances in his films as a character named Monsieur Hulot
  • Chris Tashima played the lead in Visas and Virtue and played the storyteller character in Day of Independence.
  • Eric von Stroheim, famously appeared in his lengthy silent film epics i.e. Blind Husbands and Foolish Wives.
  • Lars von Trier in his films such as The Element of Crime, Europa, and The Five Obstructions.
  • John Waters has had roles of varying prominence in most of his films.
  • Orson Welles had roles of varying significance in every film he directed.
  • Edgar Wright appears briefly in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
  • Lydia Zimmermann in her films such as Aro Tolbukhin. En la mente del asesino.
  • Taika Waititi has appeared in roles of varying significance in feature films he has directed.

Actors who have directed and starred in their own films[]

Charles Chaplin starred in almost every film he directed.
Both Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson have directed and acted in their own films.
Buster Keaton starred in every film he also directed.
Seth MacFarlane has had main roles in both of the films he has directed.

Directors who have occasionally cameoed in their own films[]

Terry Gilliam had memorable cameos in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Jabberwocky

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Greatest Film Director Cameos". filmsite.org. Retrieved 2010-12-31.
  2. ^ "10 Worst Performances by Directors Acting in Their Own Films". Filmcritic.com. Archived from the original on 2010-09-18. Retrieved 2010-12-30.
  3. ^ "When directors became actors". Filmfare. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  4. ^ Gunning, Tom (2000). The films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity. British Film Institute. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-85170-742-6.
  5. ^ Pillai, Sreedhar (October 30, 2002). "Giving hits, his speciality". The Hindu. Archived from the original on January 16, 2004. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  6. ^ Valle, Jet (7 December 2017). "Coco likes to pay it forward". Rappler. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  7. ^ Holmes, Diana; Gaffney, John (2007). Stardom in postwar France. Berghahn Books. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-84545-020-5.
  8. ^ "Breakfast Club Ending Scene". YouTube. Netflix Reviews Online. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  9. ^ "Ferris Bueller's Day Off taxi scene". YouTube. kevinrules84.
  10. ^ http://www.universalexports.net/00Cameos.shtml
  11. ^ Horton, Andrew (1991). Comedy/cinema/theory. University of California Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-520-07040-0.
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