Strangest bit part by a UK comedian

[Armin Meiwes]

Yeah, what are the odds of an well-regarded character actor with 30 or so years of experience, who specialised in playing old men and recently shot to fame playing an old man on a hit TV series, being cast as an old man?

Ooh bit nasty!

Amazingly he was only 50 when he started playing Steptoe Snr.. imagine that!

[Armin Meiwes]

Oh I forgot he was also in 1984 (original one).

[Dr Rock]

Totally doesn't count but Kramer is in an episode of Cheers. John Cleese and Emma Thompson also.

[Cold Meat Platter]

Norman Collier is in Full Metal Jacket.

[Mobius]

Carly from Inbetweeners (Anthony Head's irl daughter) did a voice on Robot Chicken, which was a bit random

[studpuppet]

In the 1980s, Tim McInnerny in a drama about the murder of the Romanovs, playing a taciturn Russian guard. We only knew him from Blackadder.

And Edge Of Darkness.



Maybe not strange, but I love that a film with a cast including Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Affleck, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, Anthony Sher, Imelda Staunton, Simon Callow, and Judi Dench also has Mark Williams, Simon Day and Patrick Barlow in it.

[Underturd]

I forgot he was in that, it's been too long since I saw it.

[Tapiocahead]

Mark Heap rocks up briefly in Octopussy as a fire eater

[Rev+]

Less a bit part, more an inexplicable cameo.  The 'troubled' Mr. Show movie Run Ronnie Run, starring David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, features a celebrity party attended by the likes of Garry Shandling.  Also there for one brief shot, raising a glass:  David Baddiel and Morwenna Banks.  Neither of them would have meant anything to an American audience, and they meant very little to a British one at the point the film was made, but somehow they were celebs playing themselves.

[TheAssassin]

Rowan Atkinson as Small-Fawcett in Connery's best Bond, Never Say Never Again

[TheAssassin]

Gorky Park, Alexei Sayle hardly had to act, but Rikki Fulton had a part too.  A good dark Cold War film set in USSR, but filmed in Sweden and Finland because the commies thought it anti-commie.

I think this film made people realise that Rikki Fulton could pass as Ronald Reagan.

[Rizla]

Less a bit part, more an inexplicable cameo.  The 'troubled' Mr. Show movie Run Ronnie Run, starring David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, features a celebrity party attended by the likes of Garry Shandling.  Also there for one brief shot, raising a glass:  David Baddiel and Morwenna Banks.  Neither of them would have meant anything to an American audience, and they meant very little to a British one at the point the film was made, but somehow they were celebs playing themselves.

Morwenna Banks was (albeit briefly) an SNL cast member in 94-95

[Glebe]

Morwenna Banks was (albeit briefly) an SNL cast member in 94-95

Hat Absolutely fucked!

[Captain Z]

I recall one poster commenting that McKenzie Crook had obviously had the worst post-Office career as he had dispersed from sight.

I hope somebody back then pointed out he was in the first three Pirates Of The Caribbean films, not to mention the seminal Sex Lives Of The Potato Men.

[Maureen Brontë]

That's a good point, I'm guessing there was a lot of bemusement when Frank Spencer got the lead role in Phantom If The Opera.

You could argue that the 4 years of Some Mothers was actually the unusual part of his career. He had Broadway and movie success before it, including sharing top billing with Streisand and Matthau in Hello Dolly, and after Some Mothers had the lead role in the West End hit Barnum, before getting the Phantom role (originally given to Steve Harley, who Lloyd Webber belatedly realised didn't have enough stage presence).

[Maureen Brontë]

Morwenna Banks was (albeit briefly) an SNL cast member in 94-95

And Pamela Stephenson a few years before her.

[PaulTMA]

Lenny Henry adding backing vocals to a Kate Bush song, which Prince had already overdubbed a bunch of stuff on (which she wasn't wild about)

[Sonny_Jim]

Rob Brydon turning up for about 30 seconds in Barbie. That was bizarre.

Chabuddy G as a random factory worker as well.  Doesn't get any lines

[famethrowa]

You could argue that the 4 years of Some Mothers was actually the unusual part of his career. He had Broadway and movie success before it, including sharing top billing with Streisand and Matthau in Hello Dolly, and after Some Mothers had the lead role in the West End hit Barnum, before getting the Phantom role (originally given to Steve Harley, who Lloyd Webber belatedly realised didn't have enough stage presence).

Great way of looking at it, thanks. I guess Frank Spencer was just so popular that it took over. I remember watching How I Won The War in the mid-80s and thinking Crawford would just be like "oooh Betty" all through it.

[TheMonk]

There's a few in Spiceworld but Michael Barrymore is the weirdest fit. He doesn't even do Doing The Crab.

[George White]

John Finnemore has a very minor role in an episode of Family Guy, and from what he said in an interview (RHLSTP maybe?), even he isn't sure why they wanted him for the part.

Brian Blessed appeared too, in the Winds of War/War and Remembrance parody ep, as Vultan (though weirdly, he did appear in War and Remembrance).

[George White]

There's a few in Spiceworld but Michael Barrymore is the weirdest fit. He doesn't even do Doing The Crab.

Esp. as he had no profile abroad.

Morwenna Banks was (albeit briefly) an SNL cast member in 94-95

She was also in a Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

[Pimhole]

Rossiter got that gig because Kubrick took a shining to him

Well done mate

Kubrick also initially wanted him as Jack Torrance, "but only if you do the Rigsby voice". Rossiter refused. The rest is history.

Not UK, but Sean Hughes popping up in The Commitments felt really weird at the time, especially since he hadn't even had his own TV show at that point or done any other acting.

[dead-ced-dead]

Chabuddy G as a random factory worker as well.  Doesn't get any lines

I think he does get a few lines. He says that the Ken dolls are selling out or something like that.

[There Be Rumblings]

Morwenna Banks was (albeit briefly) an SNL cast member in 94-95

A bit of a tangent, but she also crops up with a writer's credit in season one of Fargo, so she probably has more of a profile in the states than she is possibly given credit for.

[There Be Rumblings]

Lenny Henry adding backing vocals to a Kate Bush song, which Prince had already overdubbed a bunch of stuff on (which she wasn't wild about)

And back on a Tim McInnerny tip, he also starred in a Kate Bush video as the grief-stricken love interest in the vid for This Woman's Work.

[LordMorgan]

Uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths) playing a terrorist in superman 2

[Sean Ymphs]

Colin McFarlane turning up in the Nolan Batman films was a nice surprise

Iain Lee appears in the Angeline Jolie film Beyond Borders

[Armin Meiwes]

Well done mate


Kubrick also initially wanted him as Jack Torrance, "but only if you do the Rigsby voice". Rossiter refused. The rest is history.

Haha now imagining the Here's Jonny scene replaced by Rigsby gently knocking on the door "Ooh Miss Jone.. Torrance I simply must come in and rebalance your radiators if I may".

[idunnosomename]

Surely this is the strangest of all

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Milton_Putna

Such a tiny bit it wasn't even in the final film!