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(#1) Gary Oldman
- 65
There are many gruesome elements in Hannibal, but one of the biggest is the face of the villain. Or, should we say, the lack of a face. Mason Verger is the only surviving target of the notorious psychopath Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Although Verger survived, the encounter left his face horribly disfigured, as well as paralyzed. As a result, he's out for revenge.
When we finally get a look at Verger, it's difficult to tell who's playing him. Buried under that makeup is none other than Gary Oldman. While he may not be entirely recognizable, the actor's trademark intensity - not to mention his penchant for playing distinctly unusual characters - is right there. In his hands, this bitter man is absolutely chilling.
When asked by IGN why he chose to go uncredited, Oldman explained, "We thought that as I'm unofficially the man of many faces - you know, of Lee Harvey Oswald, Dracula, and Sid Vicious, and Beethoven - we thought that I would be... I'm playing the man with no face. So we just had a bit of fun with it. We thought it would be great. The man with no face and no name, and sort of do it anonymously."
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(#2) Tom Cruise
- 61
Ben Stiller had famously done a Tom Cruise imitation on his early-'90s Fox sketch comedy show. Apparently, Cruise didn't take it too personally, since he joined the cast of the Stiller-directed Tropic Thunder, playing Les Grossman, a vulgar, balding movie studio chief with an unexpected penchant for hip-hop dancing.
Quite frankly, the actor was in need of a public image makeover at the time. He'd received tons of negative press for infamously jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch, making controversial Scientology claims (including one that criticized Brooke Shields for taking psychiatric medication to treat postpartum depression), and getting dropped by Paramount, the studio where he had a production deal. Trumpeting his appearance in the film might have turned some audiences off, so his comeback role was left as a surprise.
As it was, recognizing him under the makeup and padded suit proved difficult, so many ticket buyers didn't realize it was him until his name popped up in the end credits. Regardless, Cruise-as-Grossman stole every scene he was in.
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(#3) Sigourney Weaver
- 73
The main characters in The Cabin in the Woods discover they're all sacrifices in a sick experiment in which horror creatures of every sort are out to get them. They're like fish in a barrel. The movie ends with two of them breaking free of the game and penetrating the underground command center where everything is being orchestrated. This is where they meet "The Director," the person in charge of the entire demented affair.
Finding the right person to assume this role was important. It had to be an actor of a certain caliber yet with an iconic connection to the horror genre. Director Drew Goddard found just the right person in Sigourney Weaver. Having played Ellen Ripley in the four original Alien pictures, she's revered by horror fans. At the same time, she's got the acting prowess to effectively make The Director someone we immediately recognize as a serious force to be reckoned with. Weaver brings deep authority to the surprise role, helping ensure that The Cabin in the Woods' big finale carries the necessary weight.
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(#4) Kevin Spacey
- 64
David Fincher's Seven follows two detectives - Somerset (Morgan Freeman) and Mills (Brad Pitt) - as they pursue a serial killer who models his elaborate acts after the Seven Deadly Sins. It's a shock for both of them and the audience when a bloodied Kevin Spacey walks into a police station and announces himself as the culprit, "John Doe."
Unlike many movies dealing with psychopaths, Seven doesn't introduce us to the villain in advance. As with Somerset and Mills, we have no clue who, exactly, they're looking for. Having Spacey's participation revealed in any of the marketing materials or the film's opening credits would have tipped off audiences, who would be waiting and expecting him to show up. Keeping him out of all that allowed viewers to experience the detectives' surprise vicariously.
Spacey himself put it best, telling Total Film, "I'd just done Swimming with Sharks, The Usual Suspects, and Outbreak, a big Warner Bros movie. I knew that if any of those movies did well, my profile would be... different. How would that affect my billing in Seven? If I'm the third-billed actor in a movie where the top two billings are trying to find somebody and they don't find that somebody until the last reel, then it's obvious who that somebody is."
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(#5) Henry Winkler
- 77
Although primarily known for television work, Henry Winkler has always dabbled in film too. Wes Craven's original Scream found him in horror movie territory, a place no one ever expected to find him. Winkler plays Principal Himbry, who gets sliced up in his office by the masked slayer known as Ghostface.
Aside from the shock of seeing "the Fonz" in a slasher flick, the actor's appearance took audiences by storm because it isn't simply the corny pop culture cameo it initially seems to be. Winkler isn't there to pass the baton to a new generation of teen stars; he's there to become one of Ghostface's first marks. Himbry's bloody demise packs a wallop because no one in their right mind anticipates seeing Henry Winkler in a part like that. The moment has subsequently gone on to become one of the most iconic "kills" in the entire Scream franchise.
Winkler agreed to forgo an onscreen credit when the producers wanted to focus on the younger cast members instead.
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(#6) Bill Murray
- 73
Bill Murray toplined a string of major hits in the early '90s, including Groundhog Day and What About Bob? It was therefore surprising when he took a small role in Kingpin, a 1996 bowling comedy directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly of Dumb & Dumber fame. He plays Ernie McCracken, a pro bowler who causes main character Roy Munson (Woody Harrelson) to lose a hand in a hustle gone bad.
Murray was mentioned in advertising yet not highlighted, largely because the bulk of Kingpin is about Munson and an Amish prodigy (Randy Quaid) that he mentors. After the first few minutes, Murray's character disappears, only to reemerge in the last act, when Munson enters a championship match and has to square off against his old nemesis.
The Caddyshack star apparently took the role on a whim. The Farrelly Brothers thought getting him to play the supporting role was a longshot, but Quaid had worked with him on Quick Change and offered to reach out. Sure enough, Murray arrived on set three weeks later, hilariously improvised all his lines, and had viewers howling with laughter over McCracken's bad combover.
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(#7) Matt Damon
- 52
Audiences were stunned when Matt Damon turned up in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. He plays Dr. Mann, a marooned astronaut so desperate to save himself that he's willing to sabotage the mission of the film's hero, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey). A star of Damon's magnitude would usually be a focal point, but he was uncredited, not featured in trailers, and absent from the publicity tour.
As for why this occurred, the intent was to mislead audiences. Damon had firmly established a reputation for heroic or good guy roles. In Interstellar, his character is not necessarily malevolent, but he's panicked enough to do self-serving and even homicidal things. Nolan knew viewers wouldn't expect that, so Mann's actions would register with an extra dose of drama. The director said, "I really love the idea for an audience to go when they see him, 'Oh, it's Matt Damon. It's going to be okay.'"
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(#8) Emma Watson
- 33
This Is the End is an intentionally self-referential comedy about a bunch of comedians facing the literal end of the world. It stars Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, and Danny McBride. A slew of other famous faces have cameos in the beginning, only to get wiped out in hilariously twisted ways once the apocalypse comes.
Partway through the film, the guys discover they aren't the only survivors; Harry Potter's Emma Watson has managed to make it too. The actress then becomes a key supporting player in the previously male-centric story, giving Rogen and crew an unlikely element to interact with. Although not known for comedy, Watson more than holds her own against her funny co-stars, tossing off a number of witty lines and verbal jabs like it's second nature. The role showed her in a whole new light while simultaneously allowing her to poke fun at the squeaky-clean image she earned playing Hermione Granger for so many years.
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(#9) Jason Statham
- 56
It wasn't a secret that Jason Statham was in Spy, but his exact function in the film was largely hidden from publicity materials. He was, after all, an A-list action hero who almost always appeared in hard-edged fare. Shots of him in the trailer played up his fighting sequences, seemingly to counteract the ineptitude of star Melissa McCarthy's secret agent character. It looked like he was just doing a quickie supporting role as a kind of in-joke.
Once the public got its eyes on Spy, they realized something shocking: Jason Statham is hilarious. The actor's part is far more than a cameo; he's a full-fledged character, and a funny one at that. Statham gets to display a sense of humor that he's rarely been able to show onscreen, taking his tough-guy persona and giving it a sarcastic twist. Critics and audiences alike raved about his surprising comedic chops.
As for why he agreed to play second banana rather than headlining his own movie, he told USA Today, "Comedy is not my first go-to sort-of genre. I've never really had the opportunity to get involved with anything like this. Well I have, but a lot of the scripts... well, they ain't that good. So when you get something from (writer/director) Paul Feig, the game changes slightly."
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(#10) Will Ferrell
- 56
Throughout Wedding Crashers, John and Jeremy (Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, respectively) repeatedly bring up the name "Chazz Reinhold." Chazz is alleged to be the ultimate wedding crasher, a legend when it comes to arriving uninvited and leaving with a woman on his arm. He is our heroes' role model. During a low point in the story, John goes to visit Chazz seeking advice, only to find the guy is now a poor pathetic figure who lives with his mom and turns up at funerals instead of nuptials.
Director David Dobkin wanted a big name for the extended cameo, and he got one in Will Ferrell. To avoid tipping the audience off that the Anchorman comedian was in Wedding Crashers, his name and appearance were left out of all marketing materials. Despite that, test audiences sensed something was afoot as soon as the scene began. Dobkin said, "The craziest thing happened, which is that when Will comes walking down those steps as Chazz, you cannot see him, and there [was] an audible reaction of people starting to laugh and have this reaction to the character before you even see that it's Will. I can never explain it, and I remember showing it to Owen later and being like, 'How do they know? What is it that they think is about to happen here?'"
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(#11) Edward Norton
- 54
In Ridley Scott's epic Kingdom of Heaven, Edward Norton plays King Baldwin, the leprosy-afflicted ruler of Jerusalem. Because his ailment has left him facially disfigured, King Baldwin wears a mask. Although having his name on the credits would have helped draw audiences, particularly as such a fascinating character, Norton opted to keep it off.
His reason was that keeping his role secret would add an important element of mystery to the story. He explained, "I didn't want to be billed because Orlando Bloom's character keeps hearing about him. There's this anticipation, this big mystery about him. It's the whole point."
Norton's instincts were correct. Knowing the actor played King Baldwin in advance would have cued people in on what to expect. Without that knowledge, we're left wondering what this much-talked-about figure will be like when he finally see - and, crucially, hear - the mysterious monarch.
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(#12) Robin Williams
- Dec. at 63 (1951-2014)
Dead Again is the story of a private eye named Mike Church (Kenneth Branagh) who attempts to help amnesia-afflicted Grace (Emma Thompson). She's been having visions of a past life, which involve having been slain by her husband. Early on, Mike and Grace seek guidance from a disgraced psychiatrist named Dr. Cozy Carlisle, who now works as a stock boy in a grocery store. He advises Grace to continue hypnosis, as doing so could reveal the trauma that has caused her memory loss.
Dr. Carlisle was played by none other than Robin Williams. If seeing the popular comedian turn up in a paranormal thriller was shocking, it was intended to be. Because of the guidance he dispenses, the scene with Carlisle essentially paves the way for everything that happens during the rest of the movie. Branagh, who also directed, needed someone to make sure the audience was sitting up and paying attention. Williams certainly did that, bringing a Peter Lorre-esque vibe to the character.
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(#13) Robert De Niro
- 80
American Hustle boasted about bringing together four major stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Christian Bale, and Amy Adams. There was, however, a fifth big star whose brief appearance in the film was kept on the down-low. Robert De Niro plays Victor Tellegio, a mobster who knows how to speak Arabic.
Of course, the actor had very successfully played wiseguys before, but this part was different. According to director David O. Russell, "He loved the fact that this man spoke Arabic - which happens to be one of the true things in the story. Truth is crazier than fiction, but there was a mobster who spoke Arabic. [Tellegio] was based on a collection of gangsters. [De Niro] was really into meticulously constructing this guy. He wanted to do something he'd never done before.”
Keeping De Niro's role a secret preserved the ability for viewers to organically see him take a familiar type of character and approach it in a whole new way.
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(#14) Melissa McCarthy
- 53
Central Intelligence is a comedy about spies, but more than that, it's about how the people from your past can affect you long after they're no longer in your life. Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson play old high school classmates who reunite when the latter drags the former right into the middle of a dangerous CIA mission.
Throughout the film, it's mentioned that Johnson's character had a massive crush on a student named Darla McGuckian in his adolescence. We don't necessarily think we're going to see this character on screen, but we do during the finale, which is set at the characters' high school reunion. Out of nowhere, Melissa McCarthy walks in to assume the role. Her overly passionate kiss with Johnson is one of the comic highlights of Central Intelligence, but the sincerity with which she plays Darla also ends the movie on a note of sweetness, giving Johnson's character the affirmation he's long sought.
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(#15) Chevy Chase
- 79
Stephen Frears' 1992 satire Hero is about a louse (Dustin Hoffman) who saves a bunch of plane crash survivors, the guy (Andy Garcia) who wrongly takes credit for the heroic act, and a TV reporter (Geena Davis) looking to uncover the truth. Comedian Chevy Chase has a supporting role as Davis's boss, Deke, a suspender-wearing J. Jonah Jameson type who's constantly yelling at people.
At the time, Chase was famous for broad physical comedies like Fletch and the Vacation series. He told biographer Rena Fruchter that he took the small part because he wanted to try a different acting style. He even altered his appearance, slicking back his hair because "I didn't want to look like Chevy Chase." The actor requested to go uncredited so as not to set his fans up for the disappointment of thinking Hero was going to be the kind of comedy for which he was known.
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