10 Blatant Paycheck Movie Roles (That Were AWESOME)

The story of Raul Julia's performance in 1994's wretched Street Fighter adaptation is one alternately heartbreaking and heart-warming.

Shortly before joining the film, Julia learned that he was suffering with terminal stomach cancer, and so decided to make his final acting role a splashy, lucrative paycheck role in order to provide for his family, while allowing his young children to choose which one it would be.

As fans of the Street Fighter video games, the choice was quickly made, with Julia going on to play the film's villain M. Bison with a delightfully campy relish.

This ensured he earned the only positive reviews in an otherwise critically mauled film, and even a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Without Julia's swinging-for-the-fences, madcap performance, Street Fighter would've been an almost entirely forgettable calamity, but instead we got pure spun gold like the famously savage "For me, it was Tuesday" scene.