10 Actors Who Made Sure They Weren't Seen In Movies

This is an interesting one.

Technically speaking, David Hyde Pierce was never actually meant to be seen in Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy anyway, given that he was hired to provide only the distinctive voice for fish-man superhero Abe Sapien, who was played on-set by legendary actor-contortionist Doug Jones.

Effectively, the studio lobbied for Pierce to voice Abe Sapien in order to inject some added star power into the fledgling superhero film. After all, given that Pierce's hit sitcom Frasier ended the very same year that Hellboy came out, his media profile was extremely high at the time.

However Pierce ultimately had other ideas, as when he came in to record his voiceover role, he heard Jones' placeholder voice and wondered why he'd even be hired for the part at all when Jones' own performance was so perfect.

As a result, Pierce decided to provide the voice uncredited, feeling that Jones should receive the sole credit for Abe due to how thoroughly he embodied the character.

And so, while the Frasier star wasn't ever meant to be seen in the main content of the film, now not even his name flashed up during the movie's credits, so he literally wasn't seen in any way, shape, or form.

Between this and the fact that Pierce didn't attend the premiere or promote the film "out of respect to Doug Jones," it's fair to say that the plan to use Pierce's A-lister clout to sell the film backfired spectacularly.

Whether coincidentally or not, Hellboy was a box office disappointment, though when Hellboy II: The Golden Army eventually came to fruition a few years later, Jones was finally allowed to voice Abe himself.