Cameo appearance facts for kids

A cameo (say: CAM-ee-oh) is a very short appearance by a famous person in a movie, TV show, play, or even a book. These roles are usually small, sometimes with no speaking lines at all.

Cameos are often a fun surprise for the audience. They can be used to show respect for someone, like when actors from an old movie appear in its remake. Sometimes, a director or writer will even pop up in their own work!

What is a Cameo?

The word "cameo" first appeared in the 1920s. Back then, it meant a small but important character part that stood out. The idea comes from a "cameo" carving, which is a tiny, detailed picture carved onto a gemstone.

Later, in the late 1900s, "cameo" started meaning any short appearance by a well-known person.

Many cameos are not officially listed in the credits. This might be because they are so short, or because the famous person is much bigger than the small role they play. Sometimes, they are just a fun way to get people talking about the movie or show. Other times, they are a way to honor someone who helped create the original story.

One of the most famous people known for cameos was Stan Lee. He made very short appearances in almost all the Marvel superhero movies.

Cameos can also happen in books! A "literary cameo" is when a character from one book briefly appears in another. This can help show that the stories are part of the same world. For example, the writer Honoré de Balzac often did this in his Human Comedy series. Sometimes, a real historical person might appear briefly with made-up characters in a historical novel.

Writers might even put themselves into their own stories. Vladimir Nabokov often did this, sometimes using a hidden version of his name, like "Vivian Darkbloom" in his novel Lolita.

Directors Who Love Cameos

Many film directors enjoy making short appearances in their own movies. It's like their personal signature!

• Alfred Hitchcock was famous for his cameos. He appeared in many of his films, starting with The Lodger in 1927. In his movie Lifeboat, where everyone was stuck on a boat, he appeared in a newspaper ad!
• Quentin Tarantino often has small roles or cameos in his movies.
• Peter Jackson has made brief appearances in almost all his films. For example, he played a peasant eating a carrot in The Fellowship of the Ring. He also appeared as a Rohan warrior in The Two Towers.
• Tim Burton also makes quick appearances. He was a street thug in Pee-wee's Big Adventure and a visitor at a fair in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
• Martin Scorsese often appears in the background of his films. He was a gangster in Who's That Knocking at My Door and a passenger in Taxi Driver.
• Roman Polanski played a hired bad guy in his movie Chinatown.
• F. Gary Gray has appeared in many films he directed, including Friday and Straight Outta Compton.

Actors and Writers in Cameos

Directors sometimes ask famous actors they've worked with before to make a cameo.

• In Jane Eyre, young Elizabeth Taylor made a cameo as Jane's friend Helen Burns.
• The movie Around the World in 80 Days (1956) was full of cameos! John Gielgud played a butler, and Frank Sinatra played piano in a saloon.
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) featured almost every popular American comedian of that time, including The Three Stooges and Jerry Lewis.
• The Player (1992) had cameos from 65 Hollywood actors!
• Aaron Sorkin, a famous writer, also appeared in some of the works he wrote. He was a bar customer in A Few Good Men and an advertising executive in The Social Network.
• Franco Nero, who played Django in the original 1966 film, appeared in a bar scene in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. He even asked the new Django (played by Jamie Foxx) to spell his name!
• In Maverick (1994), Danny Glover (who starred with Mel Gibson in the Lethal Weapon movies) played a bank robber. Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in Superman, also had a cameo.
• Actors like Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, and Will Ferrell often appear in each other's films, sometimes in cameos. They are part of a group sometimes called the "Frat Pack."
• Adam Sandler often casts his friends from Saturday Night Live (like Rob Schneider and David Spade) in his movies.
• Director Sam Raimi frequently uses his brother Ted Raimi and actor Bruce Campbell in his films.
• Singer and actress Cher had cameos in the TV show Will & Grace.
• Actor Edward Norton played himself in the movie The Dictator (2012).
• Al Pacino had a longer cameo in Jack and Jill (2011), playing a funny version of himself.
• The Japanese comic book artist Shotaro Ishinomori made many cameos in his Kamen Rider series.
• The author of Adventures of Tintin, Hergé, appeared in every episode of the animated series.
• Horror writer Stephen King is famous for making short appearances in almost every movie based on his novels.
• In the movie Les Miserables, Colm Wilkinson, who was the first actor to play Jean Valjean on stage, made a cameo as the Bishop of Digne.

Other Fun Cameos

Sometimes, real people whose lives a movie is about will make a cameo in that movie!

• In The Pursuit of Happyness, the real Chris Gardner appears at the end.
• In Apollo 13, the real commander of the flight, Jim Lovell, and his wife Marilyn appear next to the actors playing them.
• The real Erin Brockovich had a cameo as a waitress named Julia in the movie about her life.
• In Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the character Raoul Duke (played by Johnny Depp) briefly meets the real Hunter S. Thompson, who the character is based on.
• Maria Von Trapp, whose life story inspired The Sound of Music, made a short, uncredited appearance in the film.
• Musician Tom Morello appeared in the Marvel film Iron Man.
• Famous tech founders Elon Musk and Larry Ellison had cameos in Iron Man 2 (2010).
• The King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, appeared in a children's TV show called Mika.
• In The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), the real Jordan Belfort introduced Leonardo DiCaprio, who played him in the film.
• Boxer Roberto Durán and his wife appeared at the end of the movie Hands of Stone, which was about his life.
• In an unusual cameo, astronaut Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space, appeared as a Starfleet crewmember in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. She was a big fan of the show!

Images for kids

• 

  Stan Lee was well known for his cameo appearances throughout most of the Marvel films.

See also

In Spanish: Cameo para niños

• Allusion
• Bit part
• Extra
• Stan Lee