The movie shows Cary Grant's character sitting by a tombstone that bears the name Archie Leach, Grant's real name.
In the original run of the play the part of Jonathan Brewster, who had had so many cosmetic surgeries he "look[ed] like Boris Karloff", was played by Boris Karloff. He was unavailable for the film however, because he was still in the play on Broadway, so the part was played by Raymond Massey.
The Film of the BookBridget Jones Diary had Colin Firth cast as Mark Darcy, Bridget's Love Interest. The book was based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, whose romantic lead is Fitzwilliam Darcy (this itself is referenced in a line about how Bridget finds it ridiculous of Mark to be named Darcy and stand by himself at a party). Colin Firth played a particularly memorable Mr. Darcy in a 1996 BBC television adaptation of P & P. The character of Bridget Jones started in a column in The Independent and the Daily Telegraph, and when the adaptation was being broadcast she would often mention how much she fancied him. His casting in Bridget Jones's Diary was a HUGE Actor Allusion. Also, the only male actors mentioned in the novel Bridget Jones's Diary are Colin Firth and Hugh Grant. Firth is Darcy, and Grant played Daniel Cleaver, Bridget's other Love Interest. Grant also starred in another Jane Austen dramatization, Sense And Sensibility.
In Brigada Explosiva: Mision Pirata, Emilio Disi's character asks a girl if she's heard of Brigada Z. When she says no, he asks: "What about Bañeros?". Disi and his co-star in the movie, Gino Renni, co-starred in the Bañeros trilogy.
There's an interesting example of what looks like an Actor Allusion but apparently isn't in Evolution with David Duchovny. When an alien threat appears, Duchovny's character advises against calling in the government, saying, "I've worked with those guys, you can't trust them" or words to that effect. This would appear to be an obvious reference to The X-Files. According to interviews with Duchovny and the director of the film, however, this line was not an allusion to The X-Files; the director had never seen the show. That, however, did not stop the studio's marketing department from making it appear that way in the movie's TV commercials.
In the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday, Cary Grant delivers the line "Listen, the last man that said that to me was Archie Leach just a week before he cut his throat." (Archie Leach was Grant's real name.)
In Stardust, Ricky Gervais's character Ferdy the Fence tells Robert De Niro's character, Captain Shakespeare, that "You're havin' a laugh." On Extras, Gervais plays an actor who plays a character on the Show Within a Show, and this character's Catch Phrase is "Are you havin' a laugh?" In one episode, he even wonders what DeNiro would think of his career.
Otto secretly betrays George to the police, then visits him in jail. He asks if George knows who sent him up, mentioning "Kevin Delaney" as a possible suspect. Otto is played by Kevin Delaney Kline.
George's full name in that movie is George Thomason. He is played by Tom Georgeson.
Furthermore, when Nicolas Cage's character introduces himself, Connery responds with "But of course you are!" This is a line used by Bond in Diamonds Are Forever.
Connery also replies "But of course you do!" to a mook who claims he has a black belt, in the film Rising Sun.
In the 1986 remake of Invaders from Mars, the police officer who was told that something strange was going on up at the sandpit (and mentioned he hadn't been up there since he'd been a boy) was played by the same actor who, in 1953, was the boy who'd seen something strange going on up at the sandpit.
At the start of the film, protagonist Donald Sutherland is startled by an old lunatic (played by Kevin McCarthy) running through traffic and screaming that they're coming. Kevin McCarthy had been the protagonist in the original film, who'd last been seen running through traffic screaming that they were coming at the end of that film.
Even when he's playing weapons manufacturer Obadiah Stane, it's hard not to think of him as His Dudeness. The film very subtly acknowledges this when Stane speaks dismissively about hippies and then asks "Am I wrong?", which John Goodman repeatedly asks Bridges in Lebowski.
"You're not wrong; you're just an asshole."
A harder to catch one is when Pepper is at Obadiah's computer, and there are folders marked "Lebowski".
Jack Sparrow's father is played by Keith Richards, which is a Shout Out to Johnny Depp's quote about using him as inspiration for Jack's famous mannerisms. Even better, Keith's scene features him playing guitar.
The fourth film features Gemma Ward as a character named Tamara. Out of the only four films Gemma has starred in thus far, one has been The Strangers, in which her character is introduced enigmatically asking if an unknown "Tamara" is in the house.
Also in the fourth film, Barbossa asks, "aren't we all kings' men?" Geoffrey Rush was fresh off his Oscar-nominated role as Lionel Logue in The King's Speech.
In Stay Tuned, John Ritter's character lands in the living room of an apartment that looks like the one his character in Three's Company lived in. Two women (lookalikes of Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt) enter and ask in unison "WHERE have you been?". He does a pratfall over the sofa, as he frequently did on the series. This scene solely exists to be an Actor Allusion, since Ritter screams and immediately hits his remote control to go elsewhere.
It's probably easier to list the scenes in the 2007 adaptation of St Trinians which don't nod to Colin Firth's previous career in some way. The dog is called Mr. Darcy. (In one scene, it starts humping his leg, and he later kicks it into a lawnmower.) The MacGuffin of the film is the painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. (At one point, a couple of Chavs remark, "Wow! I can see why Colin Firth wanted to shag her!") It all culminates in a scene where, after being thrown out of a window into a fountain after being caught in a girls' dorm room, he walks across a field with his shirt sopping wet and romantic piano music being played in the background in a spectacular Homage Shot of the famous Wet Sari Scene from the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
In Ocean's Thirteen, as Rusty (Brad Pitt) bids goodbye to Danny (George Clooney), he tells him not to gain so much weight in between gigs next time — an allusion to Clooney packing on extra pounds for his role in Syriana. Danny responds by telling Rusty to settle down and have a couple of kids — a reference to Pitt's relationship with Angelina Jolie and their many adopted/biological children "acquired" in the short period of time between the films 2 and 3 (or Twelve and Thirteen depending on semantics).
Tess Ocean pretends to be Julia Roberts as a part of a heist, because she looks a bit like her. She is played by Julia Roberts.
All three films make references to Frank Sinatra either through dialogue or through his music. Frank Sinatra originated the role of Danny Ocean in the original Ocean's Eleven.
On the subject of Frank Sinatra, in the original Ocean's Eleven, he played a guy who runs a floating crap game. Sound familiar?
In the film The Marine, John Cena's relentless pursuit of the bad guys prompts one underling to remark that "This guy's like The Terminator!" The head bad guy, played by Robert "T-1000" Patrick, glances in the rear view mirror at the comment.
The title character (played by Mel Gibson) is in a bank as it is held up by an unnamed bankrobber played by Danny Glover who starred alongside Gibson in the Lethal Weapon series of movies. Maverick acts as though he recognises the voice of the bank robber and pulls down his mask, leading the two of them to share a moment (as a portion of Lethal Weapon's main theme plays) before shaking their heads and walking away. As he makes his getaway, the unnamed bankrobber also mentions that he's "getting too old for this".
Further, the film features the father of Bret Maverick — who, just coincidentally, happens to be played by none other than James Garner, who originated the role of Maverick on TV (and who in fact played Bret and Bart's "Pappy" in the Maverick episode of that same — he was often referenced on the show, but that was the only episode in which he was ever seen).
The film features a particularly tangled Actor Allusion. Charlie Sheen, as Topper Harley, rides a boat through a swamp and in voice-over makes an entry in his journal, reciting dialogue that is almost identical to one of his monologues from Platoon. But he's distracted by another voice-over — he looks up to see Martin Sheen, his real-life father, heading towards him in another boat while re-enacting one of his monologues from Apocalypse Now. To cap it off, the two notice each other, stand up, and as the boats speed past, give each other a thumb's-up and reference yet another movie, in which both Sheens appeared: "I loved you in Wall Street!"
President Benson dons a wet suit and joins a Navy Seal team of scuba divers. He also provides voice-over narration, describing the underwater action. The actor is most famous for the television series Sea Hunt.
Toad kicks Storm down an elevator shaft, then takes the pole that had been holding the elevator door open and twirls it like Darth Maul; both Toad and Darth Maul were played by Ray Park.
The trucker in that movie is played by George Buza, who voiced Beast in the 90s cartoon.
And towards the end of Epic Movie, they parody Superman Returns — which Kal Penn had a role in.
Towards the beginning of Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle, an extreme sports punk who steals Harold's parking space shouts "Better luck tomorrow!" at Harold, in reference to John Cho's role as the antagonist in the eponymous film.
In The Cannonball Run, Burt Reynolds' character considers driving a black Trans Am in the eponymous race, the same vehicle Reynolds famously drove in Smokey and the Bandit. He then comments "It's been done."
In Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Indy at one point declares, "I have a bad feeling about this," a line he previously uttered as Han Solo in Star Wars (and which would be a sort of Once per Episode occurrence in that film series; Solo was the second character to say it, in the trash compactor). Yoda Stories has an appearance by Indy too. Luke just says he looks familiar.
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy correctly identifies the Holy Grail, saying, "This is the cup of a carpenter." Harrison Ford worked as a carpenter early in his career.
Sean Connery, who had previously played James Bond, was chosen as Indiana Jones' father for the third film; George Lucas said that his inspiration for Indy came from Bond movies. In other words, James Bond is the father of Indiana Jones.
The Rock, Con Air, and Face Off are connected by a running gag around Nicolas Cage. In The Rock, Nicolas Cage explains to Sean Connery that he drives a beige Volvo. In Con Air, Nicholas Cage cuts Dave Chappelle's body loose from the plane, and it crashes onto a beige Volvo. In Face Off, Nicolas Cage escapes from the oil rig prison and steals a beige Volvo.
In Last Action Hero, Schwarzenegger and the kid come across an ad for Terminator 2, with Stallone as the Terminator. "The man is an artist. It's his best performance ever!"
In Twins, Schwarzenegger sees a poster with Rambo and laughs at the size of Stallone's biceps compared to his own.
And when they finally have a scene together in The Expendables, Arnie turns down the mercenary job on offer, telling Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to give it to Stallone's character as he "loves playing in the jungle". As Arnie walks away Stallone asks Willis what his problem is, to which Willis replies, "He wants to be President."
The sequel also ropes in Willis for into their Actor Allusion:
In The6th Day, Arnold tells a man to "Get Out" of his truck — just like he did on the first Terminator with a tanker.
In Terminator Salvation, the bodybuilder playing the T-800 (physically, that is), Roland Kickinger, had previously played Arnold in the made-for-TV biopic See Arnold Run.
In the 2003 film, Lou Ferrigno played a security guard (alongside Hulk's creator Stan Lee), and in The Incredible Hulk (the 2008 movie starring Edward Norton), he voiced the Hulk (as well as playing another security guard). Ferrigno played the Hulk in the 1978-'82 live-action TV series.
In the 2008 movie, Edward Norton watches the Brazilian version of The Courtship of Eddie's Father, which starred Bill Bixby, who played David Bruce Banner in the Hulk live action TV series. The kindly owner of the pizza parlor is played by Paul Soles, who voiced the Hulk in the '60s cartoon.
The Tim "Buzz Lightyear" Allen remake of The Shaggy Dog has the eponymous dog jump off a bridge on to a bus, with Allen saying "To infinity and beyond!"
In The Santa Clause 2 Santa (Tim Allen) encountered a plastic duplicate of Santa who believes himself to be the real thing. While combating one another the plastic Santa calls him a "Sad, strange little man."
In the 2004 The Punisher movie, Frank's old cop buddies are trying to calm him down by saying they understand that he's upset. He responds, in part, "I used to get upset when the Yankees won the Series." This is both a Shout Out to the original Punisher, where Frank Castle was always depicted as a New Yorker. And its an Actor Allusion about the actor, Thomas Jane, whose biggest role prior was playing Mickey Mantle of the Yankees in 61*
There are at least two Shannen Doherty in-jokes in Mallrats: in one scene, Doherty's character Rene is called "Brenda" by mistake (her character in 90210). Ben Affleck's character's name, Shannon Hamilton, is a veiled reference to Doherty's previous marriage to Ashley Hamilton.
In The Naked Gun 2½, actor Lloyd Bochner has a small role as a member of a consortium of villains. Towards the end of the film, there's a hysterical crowd scene which features a split-second shot of him holding a large book entitled "To Serve Man", yelling "It's a cookbook!!" This is a reference to a famous episode of the original Twilight Zone TV series which Bochner starred in.
The climax of Naked Gun 33 1/3 occurs at the Academy Awards, complete with a number of celebrities showing up as usual. Two of them are "Weird Al" Yankovic and Vanna White. Frank and Jane tie them up with lights and drag them into the bushes, leaving a small but notable number of viewers wondering why they weren't stuffed into a closet instead.
The Freshman is all about this trope. Marlon Brando plays a powerful, shadowy, charismatic crime boss whose resemblance to Don Vito Corleone is remarked on by all the other characters. Matthew Broderick's character tells Marlon Brando's, "You know, you look an awful lot like The Godfather." The problem was that Marlon Brando tripled his body mass between movies, so he didn't really look that much like he did in The Godfather.
Fanboys has several, including, but not necessarily limited to; Ray "Darth Maul" Park doing some of the acrobatics from his Star Wars role, and Carrie "Princess Leia" Fisher responding with "I know" to "I love you".
"Don't fuck with the Jedi Master, son." Which became "Don't mess with the Mandos, mate." The way Star Wars fandom interacts with the EU is a very complicated dance.
Another Fisher example occurs in The Blues Brothers; when her character shoots off a bazooka, the sound effect is the same as the blasters in the Star Wars films.
Danny Trejo almost constantly plays a character whose name is a type of knife (or the Spanish word for one). He plays Navajas ("knives") in Desperado, Machete in Machete/Grindhouse, Razor Charlie in From Dusk Till Dawn and Cortez (a play on the Spanish word "cortes," meaning "cuts") in Spy Kids.
In Chúmbale, the dad is watching Enrique Pinti on TV and bursts out in laughter, saying "I Love this guy!". The dad is played by Enrique Pinti.
In Speed Racer, the oldest race announcer is played by Peter Fernandez, who voiced Speed Racer and Racer X in the original cartoon.
In The Saint, Simon Templar's car is voiced by Roger Moore, who played Simon Templar in the TV series.
One of the older actresses from the Black Christmas 2006 remake starred in the original movie: Andrea Martin.
The mockumentary Waiting for Guffman includes an in-character Actor Allusion. Fred Willard plays the town travel agent, and one of his roles in the Show Within a Show is President McKinley.
McKinley: I was headed for Wichita, but somehow I ended up here in Blaine. Guess I need a new travel agent! (turns to the crowd and winks)
During a tense scene in the remake of Sleuth Jude Law (playing opposite Michael Caine in the role Caine played in the original) asks "What's it all about?" Caine and Law had assailed the eponymous roles in Alfie and its remake.
In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lee's character Saruman (another villainous magic-user, not a count though) dies by being impaled on a wooden pole. This did not happen in the book.
Lee jokes about this during one of the rare Lord of the Rings behind-the-scenes montages. Bonus points for joking while waiting to shoot the scene of his death, as in, "IMPALED" on the giant wooden spoke.
Back to Lee's Star Wars character, Count Dooku has a lightsaber with a curved handle, much like the sword of King Haggard, whom Lee voices in The Last Unicorn.
24 Hour Party People, which chronicles the rise and fall of Manchester's Factory Records (which featured Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, A Certain Ratio, and many others), makes frequent use of this. Several times throughout the film actual people who were involved with Factory make brief cameos as janitors, bartenders, etc, sometimes interacting with the actors portraying them. At one point in the movie Steve Coogan (narrating as Factory founder Tony Wilson) points out to the audience that there have been these cameos all along. Additionally, Howard Devoto of The Buzzcocks refutes the veracity of a scene in which he is portrayed (wherein he has sex with Tony's wife) saying "I definitely don't remember this happening."
Elle Driver's fate is left ambiguous as the last we see of her is her trashing around wildly on the floor and screaming after getting her other eye ripped out. As "Pris," Daryl Hannah reacts the same way to getting shot in Blade Runner.
Also, Bill tells The Bride the legend of Pai Mei before he sends her to train with him. The story is a word-for-word recounting of the backstory of David Carradine's character from the Kung Fu TV series.
Derek Jacobi as King Claudius in Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet; he had previously appeared in I Claudius. He also appeared in the BBC Television Shakespeare adaption of the play as Hamlet himself.
The 2001 Planet of the Apes features cameos from the stars of the original, Charlton Heston (protagonist Taylor), becomes... the "damned dirty" ape father of the villain, with the added bonus of his last words being "Damn them! God damn them all to hell!") and Linda Harrison (the Nubile Savage Nova), turned into an unnamed human captive).
Dracula 2000. A famous television reporter turned vampire asks, pinning down the male lead, "Ever wanted to fuck a TV star?" The reporter was played by Jeri Ryan, famous for playing Ms. Fanservice Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager. In addition, she divorced her ex-husband after he tried to take her to a wife-swapping club... so someone else could do just that...
In the Made-for-TV Movie, High School USA, the Jerk Jock (Jerk Prep, actually) gives the Eddie Haskell treatment to Eddie Haskell himself. Ken Osmond (the actor who played Eddie Haskell) played the father of the girl that that the Jerk Prep was dating.
Near the end of Fred Claus, the antagonist of the film, played by Kevin Spacey, is given a Superman cape by Santa Claus. Kevin Spacey recently played Lex Luthor in Superman Returns
In Sex and the Single Girl (1964), Tony Curtis's character has to wear a woman's robe, because his clothes are wet. He says he looks like "Jack Lemmon did, in that movie, where he dressed up like a girl." Later, he's several times said to be looking like Lemmon.
In Billy Wilder's One Two Three, Red Buttons appears as an MP who does a "You dirty rat" impression to the face of CR MacNamara... played by James Cagney.
In Mystery Men, Ricky Jay says, "I'm not a magician!" — which the actor is in real life. He also played a magician in The Prestige.
In Tomorrow Never Dies, Ricky Jay's character was to have used throwing cards as weapons, but the scenes were ultimately cut from the film. Ricky Jay is an expert card thrower and was consulted by the MythBusters on the subject too.
Hell is for Heroes is for the most part a gritty World War II action film... except for a brief sequence in which comedian Bob Newhart, at the time best known for his one-sided telephone conversation comedy routines, appears as a G.I. After the Americans discover a German bug in their camp, Newhart's character is forced to improvise a one-sided telephone conversation making it seem like the Americans are in a better position than they actually are.
A rather painful one in Steel, where Richard Roundtree's character says of the hero's trademark giant hammer "I especially like the Shaft!" apropos of absolutely nothing.
Possible example in Best in Show: Fred Willard's character says of Catherine O'Hara's "That handler looks familiar to me." It works in the film itself as part of the Running Gag that O'Hara and her husband keep running into her old boyfriends, but also references that she and Willard played a couple in Waiting for Guffman.
In Mr. Skeffington Bette Davis play an older woman, complete with make-up and all, who believes she is still young and acts accordingly. When a doctor implies that she is indeed not young anymore she asks if he thinks she is old and ugly. He answers something to the effect of: "Well, you're no Greta Garbo". The two of them had sort of a friendly rivalry going, not unlike Schwarzenegger/Stallone.
Michael Biehn has been bitten on the arm in every James Cameron movie he's been in — The Abyss, Aliens, and Terminator.
Abby, Rosario Dawson's character, tells her friends that her boyfriend fucked Daryl Hannah's stand-in. Zoe Bell, one of the friends, was Uma Thurman's stand-in in Kill Bill, wherein Thurman at one point fights Hannah.
Earlier, in the bar where Stuntman Mike meets the first group of girls, Jack Burton's shirt is in a frame on the wall.
Stuntman Mike has a scar over one eye, on the same side as the eyepatch in Escape From New York.
There's a memorable instance of this the otherwise forgettable film Stakeout: To pass the time while on stakeout, Emilio Estevez and Richard Dreyfuss's characters are playing a guessing game where they cite memorable lines of dialogue and quiz the other as to what movie it's from. Emilio Estevez's character, in an over-the-top way, recounts the line: "This was not a boating accident!" Dreyfuss, after a moment's pause, replies "I don't know." The line is from the film Jaws, spoken by Matt Hooper — a character played by Richard Dreyfuss.
The story revolves around a secret US military program called the "Jedi Program" that attempted to train soldiers with superpowers. The main character? Played by Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels. One critic described the movie as "the best Star Wars movie Ewan McGregor has ever starred in."
There's also one for Jeff Bridges, as "I Just Dropped In" is also used prominently in The Big Lebowski.
In the final dance scene in Dirty Dancing, Baby's mother says proudly of her daughter's dancing abilities, "She gets it from me!" Baby's mother is played by Kelly Bishop, who was in the original production of A Chorus Line and is a pretty accomplished dancer.
In one of the Look Whos Talking movies, Kirstie Alley's character is reduced to working as an elf in a mall Santa display, sporting a gigantic pair of pointed ears. When some kids ask what she's supposed to be, she snarls "I'm a Vulcan! Wanna see my death grip?" Alley's first movie role was playing the Vulcan Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
In the "blinkandyoullmissit" category, Jeff Goldblum's performances in Jurassic Park and Independence Day both use the line "Must go faster" during chase scenes.
In Living in Oblivion Steve Buscemi plays Nick Reve, an independent film director. At one point in the movie his lead actor storms off, shouting that he'd only wanted to work with Nick because he'd "heard he was tight with Quentin Tarentino!"
An incredibly blatant one when Cdr. Buck Murdock looks into a periscope. The first shot shows the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, followed by a reaction shot, and then what the character was really seeing. Buck Murdock is played by William Shatner.
Earlier in the same film there's a scene where air traffic controller Steve McCroskey (played by Lloyd Bridges) is shown residing in a nursing home. A nurse explains that he's gone senile and "thinks he's Lloyd Bridges," and we see him donning a scuba mask (an allusion to Bridges' role on the '50s TV show Sea Hunt).
Coy example: in Batman, Jack Nicholson's plastic surgeon uses an assortment of crude, rusty tools to reconstruct his wounded face as the Joker. At least one of these implements closely resembles one used by the evil dentist in the remake of Little Shop Of Horrors. Who'd appeared in the original The Little Shop of Horrors, as a masochistic client of this evil dentist? Jack Nicholson.
In The Squeakquel, Alvin, voiced by Justin Long, says he must "remember the five D's of dodgeball: dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge." A line from his previous film, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story.
There is a rare instance of Director Allusion in the first movie. In the film, Alvin, Simon and Theodore watch Sponge Bob Square Pants. This is because Tim Hill directed The Sponge Bob Square Pants Movie as well as directing Alvin and the Chipmunks.
An odd case occurs in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Kristen Bell plays the title character, an actress, and at one point, other characters mock her for a bad movie she was in, in which she was attacked by a killer cell phone. The writers insist that they wrote the line not knowing that Kristen Bell actually was in a movie, Pulse, about a killer cell phone.
In Uwe Boll's Alone in the Dark (2005), a character falls to his death in a spiky pit trap. The actor portraying him was Ho Sung Pak, who portrayed Liu Kang in the first two Mortal Kombat games, where characters could also meet such a fate.
In The Great White Hype, Samuel L. Jackson's character of "The Sultan" greets a well-dressed white man with long black hair with "Vincent, Vincent, where's Jules, man?", referring to Vincent Vega (played by John Travolta) and Jackson's own character Jules Winnfield, from Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
Similarly, the trailers for this new John Travolta movie include Travolta's character singing the praises of Royale with cheese.
The same film has a writer allusion. Early on, Travolta's character uses the Bond One-Liner "Wax on, Wax off". Co-writer and producer Luc Besson often works with Robert Mark Kamen, who wrote The Karate Kid which originated that line.
And in the Muppet's Christmas Carol, Michael Caine's Scrooge has been reformed and can be seen dancing in front of a shop called 'Mickelwhites' - Caine's real name.
David Boreanas' character in Valentine is a drunk who breaks his sobriety. One of the characters even say that "he's no Angel".
Taylor Lautner's character says he's uncomfortable taking his shirt off, a swipe at Lautner's Shirtless Scene-prone role in the Twilight films.
Julia Roberts' character is asked if she's ever been to El Rodeo Drive. She smirks and says yes.
At the end of The Real Howard Spitz, the eponymous protagonist (played by Kelsey Grammer) considers becoming a sitcom writer. When his friend points out he knows nothing about it, Spitz replies "Writing a sitcom's not hard. You just have a married couple, a bar in Boston or a psychiatrist on the radio."
During a Good Cop/Bad Cop sequence in the buddy cop filmCop Out (starring Tracy Morgan and Bruce Willis), Tracy Morgan is interrogating the suspect by acting like a gun-waving maniac and spewing random movie lines. When Tracy says Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker!, Bruce Willis's (who starred in the Die Hard films) character says "I've never seen that movie before."
Lynda Carter's line in the movie Sky High, "I'm not Wonder Woman, you know." Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman in the TV series.
One scene in Scotland, PA sees police Lt. McDuff pick up some maracas and spontaneously dance a few steps, explaining, "You know, I used to be a dancer." Said character is played by dancer-turned-actor Christopher Walken.
When the stalker Fireball first enters the combat zone in the movie The Running Man, Killian announces his arrival to the TV audience by declaring, "There he goes, the number one rusher!" Fireball is played by football player-turned-actor Jim Brown, who is widely considered the greatest running back in NFL history.
In The Three Stooges short Crash Goes the Hash, the butler (Bud Jamison) responds indignantly to the boys' antics by saying, "Such levity; you remind me of the Three Stooges!" Curly takes exception to the comment.
The well-known Jackie Chan movie Drunken Master has him playing a Drunken Boxing expert. He also plays a Drunken Boxing expert in his American film, The Forbidden Kingdom. Shanghai Noon was supposedly going to feature a Drunken Master fighting sequence too but Hollywood knows they're not good enough for cool fight scenes... Jackie does get drunk at one point, however, if that's good enough.
The song that is played to wake everyone up is Edith Piaf's "Non, je ne regrette rien". Marion Cotillard (Mal) played Piaf in the biopic La Vie en rose and won an Oscar for it. Also, the song title translates to "I have no regrets." This was apparently coincidental, the song was chosen before Cotillard was cast, and the director didn't realize the connection until it was too late to change the score.
She also beat Ellen Page for the Oscar that year. In the film, the two don't get along.
Crossing over with Wrestler in All of Us and Fridge Brilliance. At one point, Arthur locks a hostile projection in a hold known as the Cobra Clutch. The move was used (and named after) Sgt. Slaughter, a wrestler who was also a character in G.I. Joe. Levitt portrayed Cobra Commander in the G.I. Joe movie.
In The Princess Diaries 2, at the sleepover, Queen Clarisse says to Mia, "I've done quite a lot of flying in my time." This is referring to her part in Mary Poppins.
In the newer The Longest Yard with Adam Sandler, Burt Reynolds plays the protagonist's mentor in prison. Reynolds played Sandler's role in the original installment. Burt Reynolds' character asks Adam Sandler, "How'd they get you to go to Florida State?" Burt Reynolds attended Florida State University on a football scholarship.
Rob Schneider plays one of the good behavior inmates who watch the game from the stands. At one point he encourages the players by saying "You can do it!" exactly like his character in The Waterboy.
The Vincent Price vehicle Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine has more than one; when Goldfoot shows off his family portrait gallery, all of his ancestors are images of Price from previous movies. Soon after, Frankie Avalon's character discovers his fellow Beach Party stars Annette Funicello and Harvey Lembeck locked up in Goldfoot's dungeon.
At one point in The Mask, there is a photo of police lieutenant Kellaway's wife. The woman is actress Verna Bloom, as she appeared in Animal House, in which Kellaway's actor Peter Riegert starred.
There's a lot of this in the MockumentaryComic Book The Movie due to its large cast of voice actors in live-action roles, as well as several actors, directors and comic creators as themselves. Leo Matuzik staring at a poster of Fry stands out as one of the funniest. Then there's Don Swan's short conversation with Ms. Q in the studio office. Swan is played by Mark Hamill, and Ms. Q is played by Arleen Sorkin. They portrayed Joker and Harley Quinn in Batman The Animated Series.
There is a short blink-it-and-you'll miss it scene where Don Swan (Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker) at Comic-Con ask three men sitting at a table, "Excuse me, do you mind if we share this table?" The first man replies, "No son, move along." The three men? David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, and Jeremy Bulloch or Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Boba Fett respectively. Bonus points for it being David Prowse that says "No son."
In Suck (2009), after Joey and Jennifer have given up vampirism and rock stardom for a mundane suburban life, they run into the bartender from earlier in the movie, a vampire played by Alice Cooper. When he unfurls his wings, Jennifer says "Tell me I'm dreaming", to which he replies, in reference to their boring life, "Welcome to my nightmare". In another scene, when the band is crossing the border into America, the border guard is suspicious and hostile until they mention they're in a band, and he says he used to be in a band too. The guard is played by Alex Lifeson of Rush.
In Dreamscape, George Wendt, who is most famous for his role of "Norm" from Cheers, plays an author who believes he's uncovered a government conspiracy. His character meets the protagonist in a bar.
Be Cool: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's pro-wrestling persona is playfully referenced in a discussion about his character, a gay bodyguard who dreams of getting his big break as an actor.
In the intro for The Alphabet Killer, the protagonist (played by Eliza Dushku) laments how the people she most wants to talk to are dead. This could be an allusion to Tru Calling, in which one of Eliza's previous characters (the eponymous Tru), could indeed talk to the dead.
In Enemy Of The State, Gene Hackman plays a character who seems like an aged version of his character from The Conversation. When the baddies bring up a file photo of Hackman's character when he was younger, it is of Hackman as he appeared in The Conversation.
In Back to the Future Part III, Mary Steenbergen stars as Clara Clayton, a woman who falls in love with a time-traveller (Doc Brown). Steenbergen had also starred as such a character in Time After Time.
In An American Haunting, Sissy Spacek plays the mother of a teenaged girl named Betsy Bell who is constantly plagued by supernatural events... something Spacek should be quite familiar with, given that her most famous role was the eponymous telekinetic teen in Carrie. The comparison becomes even more apt when it's revealed that the source of the ghostly attacks was Betsy herself, manifesting the Bell Witch to protect herself from her sexually abusive father.
In Avatar, Grace Augustine — played by Stanford alumna Sigourney Weaver — sometimes wears a Na'vi-size Stanford tank top on her avatar body.
The actor who briefly played young Grindelwald in Deathly Hallows was the same as an actor who has played Dorian Gray. The comparison is apt, as others have noticed.
In The Sorcerer's Stone, John Hurt's character has a similar costume to The Storyteller.
In the B-movie, Gryphon, one of Jonathan LaPaglia's lines is "Seven Days," spoken in such a way that it must have been intentional.
In A Carol Christmas, the ghost of Christmas Present is played by William Shatner and the way that he transports Carol to different places looks like teleportation in Star Trek.
Again with His Dudeness in TRON: Legacy. Mellowed-out old Kevin Flynn is very reminiscent of The Dude in that he's all about zen, man.
In Cedar Rapids, Isiah Whitlock Jr. quotes Omar from The Wire. "And I keeps one in the chamber in case you ponderin'." On The Wire itself, Isiah plays Senator Clay Davis.
Unintentional example in The Book of Eli: Gary Oldman plays a character who, despite the difference in setting and time period, has certain similarities to his character in The Fifth Element: a smarmy corporate villain with a slight Southern accent who's obsessed with finding a certain artifact and, on multiple occasions, appears to have the artifact in his possession. It's already pretty funny in The Fifth Element when he repeatedly opens the case only to find that it's empty, but it transforms into something of a Running Gag when in The Book Of Eli, he finally obtains the similarly leather-bound, locked Bible and opens it, only to discover that it's in Braille. Could also be a Hilarious in Hindsight depending on when you're watching each movie.
In the movie Kellys Heroes, Clint Eastwood has a standoff against a tank. The scene is shot like a Spaghetti Western, and has the theme from one of the Clint Eastwood Westerns.
Ramona and Beezus has several shout outs at Selena Gomez's expense. As Ramona is getting ready for her pictures, Beezus is styling Ramona's hair with a curling iron. Beezus points out to her that "That's a curling iron, not a magic wand." Earlier in the scene, the father states that, "TV kids make millions" as Beezus is shown to be smiling in the background. A later scene has Beezus telling Ramona "Every princess needs a little sparkle," which could be a reference to either Princess Protection Program or Another Cinderella Story.
In ¡Three Amigos!, Steve Martin's character (Lucky Day), has to recite a magic phrase consisting of gibberish. The last two syllables are "Hoff-HARR", which is how you pronounce the last name of Steve Martin's character in The Man With Two Brains.
Robert Downey, Jr.'s character in A Scanner Darkly tried to make a homemade silencer only to make the gun louder. Sherlock Holmes while bored and drunk tried to make the first silencer with the same results.
Counts as Self-Deprecation: during the credits of Rock Star, Mark Wahlberg's character says he'll leave rock and move into rap... while "Good Vibrations", by Marky Mark, is playing in the background.
A strange, predictive example: in Forrest Gump, Lt. Dan (Gary Sinese) tells Forrest (Tom Hanks), "The day you're a shrimp boat captain, I'll be an astronaut!" This was a reference to the original book, in which Forrest became an astronaut, but the next time those two actors were in a film together it was Apollo 13, where, indeed, Sinese played an astronaut.
In 1988's Working Girl, corporate executive Katharine Parker (Sigourney Weaver) steps off a helicopter carrying a giant stuffed gorilla. Earlier in 1988, Weaver starred in Gorillas In The Mist.
In the Apocalypse film series movie Revelation, Jeff Fahey's character Thorold Stone enters an ultra-realistic virtual reality simulation of a beach... guess which movie he starred in where he also entered a virtual reality program?. Interesting contrast is that one of Fahey's characters claims to be God and the other is claiming that he isn't looking for God.
In Mulholland Drive, the transition from dream world to the real world is marked by the Cowboy telling Naomi Watts' character, "Come on now, pretty girl, time to wake up". In I ♥ Huckabees, her character is replaced in her spokesmodel job by Isla Fisher after having a philosophical revelation. Trying to make Fisher aware of what she's seen, Watts puts her in a headlock and says, "Wake up, pretty girl!"
In Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Natalie Portman plays the stepmom of a precocious eight-year-old, as he considers his future education options. When he brings up Harvard, Portman's character Emilia blurts "Harvard sucks!" No prizes for guessing which university is Natalie's alma mater.
In the original 13 Ghosts, the house comes complete with a creepy old maid who happens to be played by Margaret Hamilton, at the very end of the film she picks up a broom to resume her house work, but instead gives the camera a devious look while she holds it, reflecting her best known role as the Wicked Witch of the West.
In Brewster McCloud, Margaret Hamilton plays Daphne Heap, who is murdered early on. When the camera pans down to show her, she is wearing ruby slippers, a reference to her role of the Wicked Witch.
In the film Liar Liar, the actor playing Jim Carrey's son makes a funny face and asks if his face will get stuck like that. Carrey replies with something like "No; in fact, some people make good money that way," poking fun at his own distinctive style of acting.
Andy Griffith is forever remembered for the character he played on The Andy Griffith Show: an aw-shucks, small-town do-gooder with a heart of gold. But in the film A Face In The Crowd, Griffith plays Lonesome Rhodes: an immoral, power-hungry egomaniac who becomes one of the most popular personalities on television...by pretending to be an aw-shucks, small-town do-gooder with a heart of gold. Yikes. (Though his role in Face was in fact one of his earliest.)
The Rundown: At the beginning of the movie, The Rock is destroying the football players in the night club. One of them receives a Rock Bottom, his finisher in WWE.
There's also an ironic bit of foreshadowing concerning Sentinel with a scene at the beginning of the movie. The two smallest Autobots are watching the original Star Trek television series when one of them remarks that he's seen this episode before, it's the one where Spock goes crazy.
This is also not the first time that Leonard Nimoy has played a major villain in a Transformers movie. He voiced Galvatron in The Movie of the original cartoon series.
Madhouse: Having Vincent Price play an actor well known for playing the villain in horror films is sort of an actor allusion in and of itself, but then there's the fact that the clips we see of his character's old films are actually doctored scenes from other American International Pictures films starring Price. Also, after his character suddenly disappears during a talk show appearance, the host notes that he once played the invisible man: Vincent Price starred in The Invisible Man Returns. Robert Quarry also gets an AIP-related Actor Allusion - During a costume party, his character is dressed as a vampire, and costume is the exact one he wore in the AIP film Count Yorga, Vampire.
Edward Hardwicke as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Photographing Fairies. By the time the film came out, Hardwicke was by far best known as the second Dr. Watson in the Granada Sherlock Holmes adaptations.
In Sin City, a cop attacking John Hartigan (Bruce Willis) advises his colleague to kill without hesitation: John quickly dispatches them both and quips "Good advice". In Die Hard, John McClane (Bruce Willis) took down a terrorist who had told him to kill without hesitation... then snarked "Thanks for the advice". Bruce's also lying on his back, shooting upwards, on both occasions.
Gamera Vs Guiron featured a scene near the end of the film that seemed strange to non-Japanese viewers where the comic relief cop Kondo's glasses fell down his face, which he explained happened whenever he smiled. This was apparently actor-comic Kon Omura's trademark joke and appeared in most of his works.
In 2006's Casino Royale once in Monaco James Bond and Girl of the Week Vesper Lynd stay at the Hotel Splendid. Hotel Splendide is an indie film starring Daniel Craig as the chef at a failing island resort.
In Shooter, Rhona Mitra's character apparently sleeps in her old Lara Croft outfit.
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Eddy Valiant (played by Bob Hoskins) is skeptical about Judge Doom's scheme to raze Toon Town to make room for a freeway. Hoskins was also in the 1974 movie Inserts, which involved an attempt to get a washed-up director's home torn down to make way for a freeway. Also, Judge Doom's line "Traffic jams will be a thing of the past" foreshadows a scene in Back to the Future Part II.
Cuba Gooding Jr will be playing a Tuskegee pilot in the upcoming 2012 WWII movie, Red Tails. This isn't the first time Cuba played a Tuskegee pilot since the first one he did was in the 1995 HBO movie, The Tuskegee Airmen.
In the film version of Spawn, Martin Sheen says, "Let's start the Apocalypse now!"
In A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Harold is referred to as "Sulu". John Cho played Sulu in Star Trek. Also, when the arrive at the party, Kumar's friend admits he told the girl that Kumar worked at the White House. Kal Penn worked in the Obama White House.
Happy Gilmore managed the impressive feat of getting in at least three with Carl Weathers, who plays Happy's golfing mentor Chubbs, all during the course of a single scene. First, Happy, (who sneers at golf in the early sections of the film) asks Chubbs why a big guy like him isn't playing a "real" sport like football. (Weathers was once a pro football player.) Chubbs claims his mother wouldn't let him play any dangerous sports, and after thinking it over for a few seconds, Happy remarks might be for the best. (Weathers played Apollo Creed from the Rocky movies, who died in the ring during the 4th film). Lastly, Chubbs is missing a hand, and Weathers' character from Predator had his arm cut off and sent flying into the air shortly before he died.
In Immortals, John Hurt plays Zeus in human form — exactly what his character Caligula thought he was way back in I Claudius.
In Crispin Glover's film What Is It? he has a role and asks the people around him what they address him as. One man answers "McFly".
The theatrical poster for The Parole Officer featured quotes — both glowing and condemnatory — from Steve Coogan's other comedic personas.
Unintentional (probably) but still funny example: in Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris, Allison Pill played the role of Zelda Fitzgerald, who threatened to kill herself because she thought her Scott (as in, F. Fitzgerald) was unfaithful. Pill's most famous role to date is Kim Pine, who also had a troubled relationship with another Scott.
In Booky Makes Her Mark, Booky has tea with Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery. Booky's mother is played by Megan Follows, perhaps best known for her role as Anne Shirley.
In Some Like It Hot, gangster Spats Columbo (played by George Raft) asks a coin-flipping hoodlum, "Where'd you pick up that cheap trick?" Raft became famous playing coin-flipping gangsters in movies like Scarface and If I Had a Million.
In Tapeheads, the FBI agent who says "Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?" as he arrests Tim Robbins and John Cusackis Jello Biafra, who less than two years earlier had been prosecuted for obscenity based on complaints from the PMRC.
Roxy is played by Mae Whitman, who played Ann Veal, George's girlfriend in Arrested Development. This knowledge makes Scott's "You and... her?" line all the more priceless.
In The Contender, Jeff Bridges plays the President of the United States, and puts his feet up on the resolute desk just like the Dude does. He also goes bowling.
Mavis Gary of Young Adult drives the same car as Stella Bridger of The Italian Job. Both are played by Charlize Theron.
In Think Like a Man, the male characters are discussing the film For Colored Girls. One of the men mentions that he hates the movie — "That's the movie where Janet Jackson got AIDS and some crazy guy threw his kids out the window!" Sure enough, the man saying this is played by the same man who played the role of said "crazy guy" — Micheal Ealy.
Return of the Living Dead Part II gets bonus points for having a couple of characters say things their actors said as different characters in the previous film. For example, when Joey assumes that Ed wishes to be burned after he dies because he's worried some grave robber's going to steal his head:
Ed: Watch your tongue, boy, if you like this job! Joey:Like this job!?
A somewhat strange example; In My Week with Marilyn, Colin Clark went to Eton and sang in the choir. Colin Clark did go to Eton, but it was his actor, Eddie Redmayne, who sang in the Eton College Choir.
In A Hard Day's Night, the other Beatles comment that Paul's grandfather is "very clean. He's a clean old man." He's played by Wilfred Brambles, better known as Albert Steptoe in Steptoe And Son, whose son Harold is always calling him "You dirty old man!"
An interesting example in Journey 2 The Mysterious Island, which is a location allusion instead. Hank's wife tells him "why don't you visit a less mysterious island, like Hawaii?" The film was shot in Hawaii.
1993's Boris And Natasha (a live-action take on the Rocky and Bullwinkle villains) had June Foray — the original voice of Natasha — approaching her for an autograph.
In Bring It on, when the Clovers cheerleaders confront Torrence and Missy about stealing their routines, one of the Clovers says, "Can we just beat these Buffys down so I can go home?" When they decide not to do so, another Clover tells them, "You just got touched by an Angel." Missy is played by Eliza Dushku, who plays Faith in both those shows.
Sarah Michelle Geller is the titular Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the gang call them selves the 'Scoobies', a reference to Scooby-Doo. In the Live-Action Scooby Doo film, Daphne is played by Sara Michelle Geller, who also drew heavily from her role as Buffy.
In The Amazing Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy suddenly has a little brother played by Skyler Gisondo. The kid's name turns out to be Howard. Gisondo had just finished playing a young Moe Howard in The Three Stooges.
In the 1995 horror film Mosquito, the character played by Gunnar Hansen finds a chainsaw and notes that he hasn't used one in 20 years, an obvious nod to Hansen's most famous role.
In both Paul and The Cabin in the Woods, Sigourney Weaver plays the part of the mysterious chief of a top secret organization who appears only late in the film and dies a quick and painful death.
In the third Spy Kids movie, Grandpa Cortez (Ricardo Montalban) tells some technicians to be careful with his wheelchair because it features "rich, Corinthian leather". Montalban touted this very feature in ads for the Chrysler Cordoba.
In French movie Sur la piste du Marsupilami, Jamel Debbouze's character, Pablito, riding a reluctant llama, utters at one point, "You're not moving at all, Ganja." Just like his character in Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cleopatra, another Alain Chabat movie, who had the same problem but with a donkey, said: "You're not moving at all, Cannabis."
The Pink Panther Strikes Again features Dreyfus mocking the Phantom of the Opera, playing a huge pipe organ in a similar matter. In truth, Herbert Lom played both roles — he was the Phantom in the Hammer Films version from 1962.
The Waterboy and The Animal share a particular line, by Rob Schneider to Adam Sandler in the former, and by Adam Sandler to Rob Schneider in the latter: "You can do it! You can do it... ALL NIGHT LONG!" In the latter case it's not only an obvious shout-out to the former, but also intended to mock the former as it's said even more ham-handed and over the top than the original, likely due to a mutual agreement.
In The Sky's the Limit, the second chorus of "A Lot In Common With You" has Fred Astaire sing "Where's Cagney?", which Joan Leslie answers with "Where's Hayworth?" Rita Hayworth had been Astaire's co-star in You'll Never Get Rich and You Were Never Lovelier, while Leslie had been recently featured in Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring James Cagney.
In Hugo,Sacha Baron Cohen's portrayal of the station inspector is similar to Borat, not just in appearance and accent, but even in mannerisms to some extent.
In "The Bridge on the River Kwai" Sessue Hayakawa played a Japanese colonel overseeing a bridge-building project. In "The Geisha Boy", he was building a bridge in his backyard...with the help of men whistling "Colonel Bogey".
In the opening scene of Peter Sellers's final film, The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu, Sellers-as-Fu notes "Your face is familiar" to the servant bringing him (but ultimately spilling) his Elixir Vitae. This references the actors' roles in The Pink Panther films — Sellers was Inspector Clouseau while Burt Kwouk, the servant in question, played his sidekick Cato.
When Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) shows Bruce Wayne the Bat in the R&D laboratory, Bruce says, "Now you're just showing off." As God, Freeman received the exact same line from Jim Carey's character in Bruce Almighty.
Anne Hathaway's character, Selina Kyle, is instructed by Alfred to take a tray up to Bruce's quarters, and to put it down, then immediately leave and lock the door behind her. It clearly references something said to Hathaway's character in The Devil Wears Prada.
In Ransom, Tom Mullen's son asks him if he can enter a project into the science competition under a different name, since his mother is mother is judging and there would be a conflict of interest. Tom suggests "John Smith" - Tom was played by Mel Gibson, who also provided the voice of John Smith in Pocahontas.
Near the end of Rachel Getting Married, Kym (Anne Hathaway) is interrupted when her father comes up to her with one of the wedding guests. He tells his daughter that the woman "just lost an office assistant" and she'd be perfect for the job—a job Hathaway's character had in The Devil Wears Prada.
In Judgment at Nuremberg, Marlene Dietrich's appearances are often accompanied by the tune "Lili Marleen" in the background. Dietrich recorded one of the most well known renditions of the song.
