17 sneaky movie cameos you didn't notice at the time
Not everyone can be a star. Films are stuffed with extras and supporting actors who you will probably never see again.
But wait... That zombie shuffling across the screen looked very familiar. And that nameless Star Trek ensign – we're sure we've seen him before.
Here are 14 of the sneakiest cameos to ever make us double-take in a movie:
1. Hot Fuzz – Cate Blanchett
Even though she has a lot more lines than most of the characters in this piece, you'd be forgiven for not noticing that the masked, goggled and British-accented Scene Of Crime Officer (and ex-girlfriend of PC Nicholas Angel) Janine is played by Edgar Wright superfan Cate Blanchett. In the same scene: a masked Joe Cornish and Robert Popper.
2. Hot Fuzz – Peter Jackson
Blanchett wasn't the only cameo from Down Under. The Father Christmas who stabs Simon Pegg in the hand? That was Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson.
3. Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Daniel Craig
The return to a galaxy far, far away was chock full of celebrity cameos, but our favourite had to be Daniel Craig's appearance as the Force-bamboozled stormtrooper who Rey tricks into letting her go.
4. Hook – Carrie Fisher and George Lucas
The couple kissing on Westminster Bridge who start floating as Tinkerbell passes over them are Princess Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, and her Star Wars director George Lucas. Fisher had served as a script doctor on Steven Spielberg's movie. The impossible to spot cameo was only confirmed in 2016 during the 25th anniversary celebration of Hook.
5. The Man from UNCLE – David Beckham
Guy Ritchie called on his pal David Beckham for a one-line role in his 2015 movie reboot. He plays a Russian projectionist whose face is partially hidden by a pair of large glasses.
6. Shaun of the Dead – Chris Martin
Edgar Wright loves himself some cameos, doesn't he? As well as appearing on a TV screen within the film as himself, Coldplay's Chris Martin was one of the zombie horde waiting outside the Winchester at the climax of Wright's film. And they were all… yellow.
7. Dumb and Dumber To – Bill Murray
Jennifer Lawrence may have asked for her cameo to be cut from the film, but Bill Murray's turn as Harry's meth-cooking, hazmat-wearing Heisenberg pastiche of a roommate Icepick remains.
8. Ghostbusters – Ron Jeremy
Paranormal disasters affect everyone, so no wonder porn legend Ron Jeremy was among the onlookers when the Ghostbusters' ghost containment system went boom.
9. Hook – Glenn Close
Albert Nobbs wasn't Glenn's first turn as a man. She is unrecognisable as the bearded pirate Gutless, who is consigned to the 'Boo Box' for doubting her captain.
10. Minority Report – Cameron Diaz and Cameron Crowe
Steven Spielberg snuck in as many Camerons as he could into the train scene in Minority Report. The man with the newspaper is director Cameron Crowe, and next to him is Cameron Diaz, who appeared alongside the movie's star Tom Cruise in Crowe's Vanilla Sky.
11. Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom – Dan Aykroyd
The Ghostbusters star cracked out his best terrible English accent to tell Indie and his pals that they had been downgraded to the cargo plane.
12. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Ian Brown
The Stone Roses frontman can be seen magically stirring a hot drink and reading Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (naturally) in the Leaky Cauldron. (You also caught Jarvis Cocker and Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Philip Selway as the Yule Ball band in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, right?)
13. Hoffa – Tim Burton
This thriller came out in the same year as director Danny DeVito's turn in Batman Returns, so he got Tim Burton to make a fittingly gothic cameo – as a corpse.
14. The Witches – Michael Palin
The former Python can just about be spotted among the bewigged and cackling witches-in-disguise in Nic Roeg's adaptation of the Roald Dahl story.
15. Casino Royale – Richard Branson
The Virgin founder and James Bond fan can be seen passing through airport security as 007 chases down the bad guy – we'd know that bouffant anywhere.
16. Eurotrip – Matt Damon
Why did Matt Damon – by then already a massive star – don piercings and a neck tattoo to play a punk rocker in this trashy teen flick? Because, in a nutshell, he went to college with the directors and they asked. You can also see him cameo in Thor Ragnarok as the Loki actor in Fake Odin's play, in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind as one of the Dating Game contestants, In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Backas himself, in Chasing Amy as an MTV executive and in Che as a German priest. Dude likes working.
17. World War Z – Matthew Fox
Lost's Matthew Fox was essentially cut from the Brad Pitt zombie film, but still managed a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance as one of the helicopter crew who save Brad and family from the rooftop near the beginning.
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