The 1990s were filled with iconic movie moments. It might be an unforgettable performance like Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, or a mind-blowing plot twist like 1999’s The Sixth Sense, or a film with trendsetting styles and catchphrases like 1995’s Clueless. Or it might be something as simple as a cameo.
Everybody loves a good movie cameo. It’s an amusing surprise when a famous person unexpectedly pops up on the screen. It could be anyone from an actor or actress, to a popular musician, to Elon Musk casually chatting with Tony Stark in Iron Man 2. These cameos can become an iconic piece of the film, or simply just a reflection of the people and pop culture of the times, feeding us nostalgia when we rewatch the movie years later. Or sometimes, the cameo can age poorly and make us scratch our heads. Regardless of the effect, here are the ten most iconic movie cameos of the 1990s.
10 Donald Trump – Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
This one definitely hits differently these days. Before he became the controversial 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump was a famous business mogul, real estate tycoon, and Manhattan socialite. Between 1988 and 1995, he owned New York City’s luxurious Plaza Hotel. The hotel was a major setting in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and was where Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) stayed for most of the film.
In one scene, Kevin is wandering the hotel and asks a random man for directions to the lobby. This man, of course, was the Plaza’s owner himself. Since Trump’s infamous presidency, many people, including Macaulay Culkin, have called for this cameo to be removed from Home Alone 2. Canadian channel CBC actually cut Trump’s brief appearance from a rerun of the film.
9 Glenn Close – Hook (1991)
If you didn’t know this cameo existed in Hook, then you’d probably miss it. During Captain Hook’s (Dustin Hoffman) swashbuckling entrance, he accuses a pirate named Gutless of losing faith in his abilities and condemns him to the dreaded Boo Box. This manly looking pirate is none other than actress Glenn Close. While the cameo seems random, there is a reason for it. Close was visiting her friend and lead actor Robin Williams during the filming of Hook. While on set, director Steven Spielberg offered her the role of Gutless, which she happily took. Once you learn about this cameo, it’s hard not to see Glenn Close’s face whenever you rewatch this scene.
8 Blink-182 – American Pie (1999)
In 1999, American Pie was the comedy that everyone was talking about, and Blink-182 was the punk-rock band that everyone was listening to. It was also the year that brought the two of these things together. In American Pie’s most racy and controversial scene, main character Jim (Jason Biggs) attempts to live stream the naked, foreign exchange student on his bed for his friends’ amusement. But what he accidentally ends up doing instead is live-streaming this poor girl to the entire internet. Even superstars Blink-182 get access to the video in this quintessential 90s cameo.
7 Dan Marino – Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
Dan Marino is known as one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time. But to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective villain Ray Finkle, Marino is the guy who mishandled a crucial snap, causing Finkle to botch the field goal winning kick that cost the Miami Dolphins the Super Bowl. Traumatized, Finkle develops a homicidal obsession with Marino and kidnaps the football star. Marino himself appears in the film and interacts with Jim Carrey, making this an incredibly ’90s cameo.
6 Alanis Morissette – Dogma (1999)
With pop hits like “You Oughta Know” and “Ironic”, Alanis Morissette was one of the music queens of the 90s. Many people called her music angry due to the edgy lyrics and vengeful tones of some of her songs. Director Kevin Smith initially asked her to play the role of Bethany in his new film Dogma, but Morissette couldn’t commit because of her tour schedule. By the time she was available, the role of Bethany had already gone to Linda Fiorentino — so Smith cast her in the role of God.
Morissette didn’t have any dialogue, which made for an intriguing take on God, and relied on facial expressions and body language for her performance. Audiences were surprised to see the “angry” singer in a comedy, and it worked well. Her appearance has since become one of the most famous movie cameos by a musician.
5 Brett Favre – There’s Something About Mary (1998)
There’s Something About Mary was one of the most popular comedies of the ’90s. While some of its scenes may have aged poorly, the film features plenty of laugh-out-loud and iconic moments, like when Mary (Cameron Diaz) mistakenly uses something that’s definitely not hair gel to give herself that ridiculous hairstyle. During the movie, Mary repeatedly mentions her ex-boyfriend Brett.
Ben Stiller reunites Mary and Brett at the end of the film, who turns out to be none other than legendary Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre. “What the hell is Brett Favre doing here?” wonders both the audience and supporting star Matt Dillon. “I’m in town to play the Dolphins, you dumb a**,” the NFL star shoots back. Favre’s appearance is one of the funniest twists in comedy, another achievement in the quarterback’s legacy.
4 Dan Aykroyd – Casper (1995)
Dan Aykroyd is one of the writers and stars behind the popular Ghostbusters franchise. He spent several films getting rid of ghosts, so naturally, his services were requested in the movie Casper. After inheriting a haunted mansion, the film’s antagonists hire different exterminators to rid the property of ghosts, namely Casper and his prankster uncles. They bring in a demolition team, an exorcist, and Dan Aykroyd’s Ghostbusters character Ray Stantz.
In this funny homage to the beloved franchise, Stantz comes bolting out the mansion looking terrified and recites the movie’s iconic line. “Who you gonna call? Someone else!” he decides after glancing back at the mansion. Apparently, Casper’s uncles were just too much, even for a Ghostbuster.
3 Bob Barker – Happy Gilmore (1996)
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Bob Barker was the nice guy host of the popular television game show The Price Is Right. So it surprised everyone when he popped up in Adam Sandler’s profane comedy Happy Gilmore. Bob Barker, as himself, is paired up with Happy Gilmore (Sandler) during a celebrity tournament, and what follows is a hilariously unexpected scene.
Fed up with Barker’s criticisms, Happy decks the old man in the face. “You want a piece of me?” Happy shouts. “I don’t want a piece of you. I want the whole thing,” Barker shoots back. The two men get into a comically drawn out brawl, where Happy utters one of the film’s most iconic lines: “The price is wrong, b*tch.” But in the end, it’s Happy who’s wrong after getting absolutely pummeled into the golf course the game show host.
2 Drew Barrymore – Scream (1996)
Scream was the biggest horror movie of the 90s. Its success gave birth to the horror villain Ghostface and to a new popular franchise of slasher films. The movie had an iconic opening. A young Drew Barrymore, rocking that blonde bob hairstyle, goes from having a casual phone conversation to being tormented by a mysterious caller.
This mysterious caller, of course, is Ghostface, who breaks into the young woman’s home and chases her.
At the time, audiences had assumed that Barrymore was playing a major role. But director Wes Craven took a page out of Alfred Hitchcock’s playbook for Psycho. Barrymore’s death in the first few minutes of the film turned the scene into a shocking opener and is now one of the most memorable cameos in film.
1 Christopher Walken – Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction is Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece and one of cinema’s greatest works, not just of the 90s but of all time. Told in classic Tarantino nonlinear format, Pulpfiction weaves together different storylines and characters, drugs and violence, gimps and a mysterious, glowing briefcase to craft a unique story. It features an all-star ensemble, which includes Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis…and Christopher Walken in perhaps the greatest cameo of all time. One of the movie’s chapters, The Gold Watch, focuses on Bruce Willis’s character Butch.
It begins with a flashback to Butch’s childhood where he meets Captain Koons, his deceased father’s Vietnam War buddy, played perfectly by Christopher Walken. Holding out the boy’s ancestral heirloom, a golden watch, Koons delivers the most absurd monologue ever, as he tells the young boy about the watch’s history — which basically involved being hidden up multiple a**ess during times of war. To hear Tarantino’s crazy words coming out of Walken’s stone-faced character is nothing short of movie magic.
