Greatest Movie Casts of All Time
It's a Friday night and XM has been slacking on his drinking threads lately, so I thought I'd go with a different question. We've had threads about the best 80's movies, the best and worst sequels, etc. But I was thinking today about some movies with the greatest casts of all time. Not necessarily the best movies, but the movies with the best casts. There are certainly lots to choose from here: the Rat Pack, the Brat Pack (I'm an 80's/early 90's guy), or even the newer "Ocean's" franchise.
I'll start off with one out of left field: The Cannonball Run.
Burt Reynolds
Dom Deluise
Roger Moore
Farrah Fawcett
Dean Martin
Sammy Davis Jr.
Jackie Chan
Jack Elam (probably my favorite in the movie)
The cast also included Mel Tillis and Terry Bradshaw and cameos with Bianca Jagger and Peter Fonda.
So what are your thoughts for the greatest movie casts of all time?
Extra credit bonus question: What are you drinking?
Just for the name power in the cast alone, how about "A Bridge Too Far"?
Say what you will about the film itself, the names in that film....
So many war movies with great casts. Two others.
The Dirty Dozen:
- Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Jim Brown, George Kennedy.
Kelly's Heroes:
- Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor.
The Longest Yard, I know not all great actors but a lot of famous people in it!
Probably Sandlers best movie.
Django is my first pick.
Or Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (not my favorite HP movie, but in terms of the names it's probably the most stacked)
Departed is up there too.
My vote goes to Diner(1982), especially since none of the cast were stars yet. Second place goes to the Outsiders(1983) for the same reason. Both casts were full of future stars.
Sneakers:
- Robert Redford
- Ben Kingsley
- Dan Akroyd
- Sidney Poitier
- David Strathairn
- Mary McDonnell
- River Phoenix
- Timothy Busfield
- James Earl Jones
- And several other great character actors
Sneaky excellent film
Blazing Saddles because I’m introducing my 12 year old (edited version at least) and Tanqueray & Tonic.
If he doesn't like the tonic, try Tanq and squirt.... oh Maybe I misread this post.
So many great lines. I've seen it countless times, but I still can't keep a straight face when Wilder tells the story of the Waco Kid's downfall and concludes with "Little bastard shot me in the ass!"
Spinal Tap is tough to beat in the comedy category:
- Michael McKean as David St. Hubbins
- Christopher Guest as Nigel Tufnel
- Harry Shearer as Derek Smalls
- Rob Reiner as Martin "Marty" Di Bergi
- Bruno Kirby as limo driver Tommy Pischedda
- Ed Begley Jr. as John "Stumpy" Pepys
- Fran Drescher as Bobbi Flekman
- Dana Carvey as mime waiter
- Billy Crystal as Morty the Mime
- Howard Hesseman as Terry Ladd (Duke Fame's Manager)
- Paul Shaffer as incompetent promoter Artie Fufkin (Polymer Records)
- Anjelica Huston as Polly Deutsch
- Fred Willard as Air Force Lt. Bob Hookstratten
But I would go with Blues Brothers.
So many fantastic movies here! I'll throw in THE GREAT ESCAPE: James Coburn, James Garner, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, David McCallum, Donald Pleasance.
It's hard to argue with THE GODFATHER in this category, though.
I like movies like the Thing and Alien, that had to have tight casting because there really isn't a whole lot of action if you think about it, but there's a lot of acting, so to speak (Glengarry, Hateful 8, etc.)
Alien - Sigourney, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Ian Holm, Tom Skerritt. All killer no filler
Also Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes, which unfortunately wasn't a great film, but check out this cast! Buscemi, Cate Blanchett, BIll Murray, Roberto Benigni, Al Molina, Steve Coogan, Steven Wright, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, the RZA, the GZA, Jack and Meg White
Don't forget Bolaji Badejo! I love the story of how they hired him- one of the casting directors for Alien found him at a bar in Soho-the goal was to find someone skinny enough so that the costume looked like t couldn't have been worn by a person, and he was 6'10" and probably weighed less than 200 lbs.
Glengarry Glen Ross.
12 Angry Men.
Catch-22 (1970) had just about every male actor in existence.
Kelly’s Heroes (1970) had every other male actor in existence. Plus Don Rickles. And Oddball.
By far the best cast of relative no names who turned into future stars was Fast Times at Ridgemont High - Sean Penn, Judge Reinhold, Nicholas Cage, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and many others and of course Phoebe Cates.
Speaking of which, I haven’t seen Mike Damone around here in a while. Was he sent to Bolivia?
Forest Whitaker.
Hands down it’s the depated
An unconventional choice, but the movie Basquiat had Jeffrey Wright in the title role, David Bowie as Andy Warhol, and supporting roles from Benicio del Toro, Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Courtney Love, Parker Posey and Willem Defoe, among others.
It’s perhaps too obvious but I haven’t seen Casablanca mentioned. Bogart, Bergman, Rains, Lorre, Greenstreet, and the supporting cast holds their weight.
The Longest Day for leading men
- John Wayne
- Henry Fonda
- Robert Mitchum
- Sean Connery
- Eddie Albert
- Curd Jürgens
- Richard Todd
- Richard Burton
- Peter Lawford
- Rod Steiger
- Irina Demick
- Gert Fröbe
- Edmond O'Brien
- Kenneth More
Whats New Pussy Cat for beautiful women
- Peter Sellers as Dr. Fritz Fassbender
- Peter O'Toole as Michael James
- Romy Schneider as Carole Werner
- Capucine as Renée Lefebvre
- Paula Prentiss as Liz Bien
- Woody Allen as Victor Shakapopulis
- Ursula Andress as Rita, the parachutist
Species for stupid movie with great actors
- Natasha Henstridge as Sil
- Michelle Williams as Young Sil
- Dana Hee as Alien Sil
- Frank Welker as Alien Sil (voice)
- Ben Kingsley as Xavier Fitch
- Michael Madsen as Preston "Press" Lennox
- Alfred Molina as Dr. Stephen Arden
- Forest Whitaker as Dan Smithson
- Marg Helgenberger as Dr. Laura Baker
- Whip Hubley as John Carey
'The Departed' had an all-star cast:
- Matt Damon
- Leonardo Di Caprio
- Jack Nicholson
- Mark Wahlberg
- Alec Baldwin
- Martin Sheen
I know Godfather is an easy choice, but Goodfellas is up there, too. Liotta, DeNiro, Pesci, Lorraine Bracco were all phenomenal.
Tropic Thunder is a great one, too, and probably a more unconventional choice. Literally everyone in that movie plays their part to perfection.
You know what was better than Cannonball Run? The SNL skit done where Chris Farley played Dom Deluise. Absolutely hilarious.
The Poseidon Adventure - A really stupid movie with a great cast.
Boogie Nights
Legendary actors, all with great performances.
It’s early, so drinking coffee.
True Romance
Dennis Hopper
Christopher Walken
Christian Slater
Patricia Arquette
Samuel L. Jackson
Gary Oldman
Michael Rappaport
Brad Pitt
Val Kilmer
James Gandolfini
Chris Penn
Tom Sizemore
Bronson Pinchot
Saul Rubinek
Jay and Silent Bob’s cast is incredible. I’ve never seen so many cameo’s, on top of the huge starring cast
A Bridge Too Far.
Sean Connery
Anthony Hopkins
Robert Redford
Michael Caine
Ryan O’Neal
James Caan
Gene Hackman
Laurence Olivier
Elliot Gould
There’s also appearances from John Ratzenberger (in almost every Pixar movie) and Denholm Elliot (Dr. Marcus Brody in Indiana Jones). Absolutely loaded.
A lot of really good responses, so I'll go random with Tango and Cash. Teri Hatcher, Kurt Russel and Sly, what's not to love!
Wow, cannonball run. I haven't seen that since I was little. I'll have to find that now and see if it was as good as I remember from when I was a kid.
Has anyone mentioned The Thin Red Line?
Jim Caviezel
Nick Nolte
Ardrien Brody
George Clooney
John Cusack
Woody Harrelson
Sean Penn
John C Reily
Jared Leto
John Travolta
Most of the best have probably been covered by now, but a couple casts I really enjoyed were Heat and 2 Days in the Valley.
12 Angry Men.
Midway (1976):
Charlton Heston
Henry Fonda
James Coburn
Glenn Ford
Hal Holbrook
Toshiro Mifune
Robert Mitchum
Cliff Robertson
Robert Wagner
James Shigeta
Pat Morita
Erik Estrada
Tom Selleck
Great lists all around. One other that I haven't seen listed yet: Lucky Number Slevin (Bruce Willis, Ben Kinglsey, Morgan Freeman, Josh Harnett, Lucy Liu and Stanley Tucci).
The Right Stuff, The Martian and Black Hawk Down all have outstanding casts as well.
I can't believe nobody has mentioned The Big Lebowski....
Jeff Bridges
John Goodman
Steve Buscemi
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Julianne Moore
John Toturo
Sam Elliott
FLEA
And.......
Tara Reid
No one mentioned Predator, so I'll throw that out there. I can't think of any other movie with two actors that would both go on to be the 38th governors of their respective states.
The Running Man (same two actors).
Pulp Fiction
How the West Was Won
John Wayne,James Stewart,Henry Fonda,Karl Malden,Gregory Peck,Harry Morgan,George Peppard,Robert Preston,Debby Reynolds,Agnes Morehead,Walter Brennan,Andy Devine,Richard Widmark,Claude Akins,Lee J Cobb
I love how there are at least three pairs of posts that were clearly typed at the same time plugging the same movie.
I do want to put forward (since it hasn't been mentioned, although perhaps someone's typing it right now too) The Princess Bride:
Mandy Patinkin...Iñigo Montoya
Chris Sarandon...Prince Humperdinck
Christopher Guest...Count Rugen
André René Roussimoff...Fezzik (as Andre the Giant)
Robin Wright...The Princess Bride
Mystic River
Tough category, but for the kids on here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Mad,_Mad,_Mad,_Mad_World
Maybe not the greatest cast ever, but certainly the likes of which we will never see again. Particularly from the comedic talent subject.
If you've never seen it, it's worth your time.
All the best, and Go Blue!
Short Cuts. Robert Altman, 1993.
that was a cast.
Julianne Moore, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Lily Tomlin, Andie MacDowell, Anne Archer, Lily Taylor, Lori Singer, Madeleine Stowe, Frances Mcdormand… Robert Downey, Mathew Modine, Jack Fucking Lemmon, Tom Waits, Lyle Lovett, Buck Henry, Peter Gallagher, Tim Robbins… and more.
Magnificent Seven. The 1960 version please (though the remake cast is no slouch).
The ensemble cast includes Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn, Brad Dexter, James Coburn, and Horst Buchholz[4] as a group of seven gunfighters, and Eli Wallach as their main antagonist.