List of directors who appear in their own films

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This is a list of directors who have appeared in their own films.

Directors who regularly appear in their own films

Charles Chaplin starred in almost every film he directed.

Alfred Hitchcock made cameo appearances in nearly all his films.

Orson Welles had roles in most of his films.

• Woody Allen regularly stars in or at least has a major role in most of his films.
• Dev Anand regularly stars in or at least has a major role in most of his films.
• Kenneth Branagh has starred in and directed many films.
• Mel Brooks has had prominent roles in most of his films.
• Jan Bucquoy has appeared in many of his films.
• John Carpenter has had small roles in many of his films, as well as composing the score for several.
• Charlie Chaplin starred in almost every film he directed.
• Ruggero Deodato makes very brief cameos in most of his films.
• Abbas Kiarostami appeared in his film Taste of Cherry.
• Michael Moore has starred in his own movies.
• 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 Fassbiner in his films such as Ali: Fear Eats the Soul.
• Subhash Ghai has appeared in many of his films.
• 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 Hitchcock cameo appearances for more details.
• Peter Jackson has made small cameo appearances in most of his films.
• Spike Lee has had small roles in many of his films.
• Roman Polanski has regularly appeared in his films, in both major and smaller roles.
• Eli Roth has a small role in every film he has directed. In the latest Hostel movie, only his decapitated head is in it.
• John Sayles has appeared in many of his films.
• Martin Scorsese has appeared in a fair number of his films.
• M. Night Shyamalan has so far had a small role in all but one of his films (Wide Awake). His role in his most recent film, Lady in the Water was considerably more prominent than in previous films.
• 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 and Grindhouse) and smaller roles (Jackie Brown, uncredited voice only).^[1]
• Chris Tashima played the lead in Visas and Virtue and played the storyteller character in Day of Independence.
• John Waters has had roles of varying prominence in most of his films.
• Orson Welles had roles of varying significance in several of his films.
• Edgar Wright appears briefly in both Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz

Actors who have directed and starred in their own films

Both Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson have directed and acted in their own films.

• Alan Alda in The Four Seasons, Sweet Liberty, A New Life and Betsy's Wedding
• Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait, Reds, Dick Tracy and Bulworth
• Roberto Benigni inLife Is Beautiful, The Tiger and the Snow
• Matthew Broderick in Infinity
• Nicholas Cage in Sonny
• Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves, Waterworld, The Postman and Open Range
• Billy Crystal in Mr. Saturday Night and Forget Paris
• Johnny Depp in The Brave
• Danny DeVito in Throw Momma from the Train, The War of the Roses, Hoffa, Matilda and Death to Smoochy
• Kirk Douglas in Scalawag and Posse
• Jodie Foster in Little Man Tate
• Jonathan Frakes in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Insurrection
• Mel Gibson in The Man Without a Face and Braveheart
• Crispin Glover in What is It?
• Tom Hanks in That Thing You Do
• Ed Harris in Pollock
• Charlton Heston in Antony and Cleopatra, Mother Lode and A Man for All Seasons
• Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider, The Last Movie, Out of the Blue
• Tommy Lee Jones in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
• Diane Keaton in Hanging Up
• Walter Matthau in Gangster Story
• Bill Murray in Quick Change
• Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
• Jack Nicholson in Goin' South and The Two Jakes
• Robert Redford in The Horse Whisperer
• Rob Reiner in This Is Spinal Tap, Misery, The Story of Us and Alex and Emma
• Gary Sinise in Of Mice and Men
• William Shatner in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Groom Lake
• Martin Sheen in Cadence
• Sylvester Stallone in Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV and Rocky Balboa
• Ben Stiller in Reality Bites, The Cable Guy, Zoolander and Tropic Thunder
• Barbra Streisand in Yentl, The Prince of Tides and The Mirror Has Two Faces
• Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade and Daddy and them

Directors who have occasionally cameoed in their own films

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

• Kevin Allen in Twin Town
• Michael Bay in Armageddon, Bad Boys II and Transformers
• Luc Besson in L'Avant dernier, Subway, The Big Blue^[2] and in animated form in Arthur and the Minimoys^{[citation needed]}
• Rob Cohen in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Daylight, The Skulls, The Fast and the Furious and XXX^[3]
• Richard Donner in Superman, Superman II, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut, The Goonies, Conspiracy Theory, Timeline and 16 Blocks^[4]
• Terry Gilliam in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jabberwocky, The Crimson Permanent Assurance, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen^[5]
• John Landis in Schlock, The Kentucky Fried Movie, The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London^[6]
• Richard Linklater in It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, Slacker and Waking Life^[7]
• George Lucas in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith^[8]
• David Lynch in The Amputee, Dune, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and Dumb Land (voice only)^[9]
• Sydney Pollack in The Electric Horseman, Tootsie, Random Hearts and The Interpreter^[10]
• Michael Powell in Peeping Tom as the sadistic scientist father (only seen in home-movie footage). Also seen briefly in Hotel Splendide, The Fire Raisers, The Edge of the World, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, The Volunteer^[11]
• Robert Rafelson in the Monkees' feature film, Head^[12]
• Sam Raimi had a cameo in The Evil Dead as one of the roadside people waving goodbye to Ash and his friends. Also seen briefly in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness^[13]
• Harold Ramis as the neurologist in Groundhog Day^[14]
• Steven Spielberg in Jaws, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Lost World: Jurassic Park^[15]
• Oliver Stone in The Hand, Platoon, Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors, Nixon (voice only) and Any Given Sunday^[16]
• Gus Van Sant in My Own Private Idaho, Psycho, Finding Forrester and Last Days^[17]
• Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now
• Emile Ardolino in Dirty Dancing
• Jon Favreau in Elf, Made, and Iron Man

References

See also

• List of Hitchcock cameo appearances
• Cameo appearance

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