10 Great Directors Who Acted In Other Peoples' Movies

9. John Huston - Chinatown

Some of John Huston's on-set behaviour has passed into legend. So much so that Clint Eastwood based the central character of a big name helmer obsessed with big game in White Hunter Black Heart on Huston's exploits during filming of The African Queen. In 1974 he took the role of Noah Cross, the evil industrialist in Roman Polanski's cerebral film noir Chinatown. Memorably branding Jack Nicholson's private dick Jake Gittes as "Mr Gits", he formed the rotten core of a case involving corrupt water sales, though the key revelation about Cross toward the end of the story proved even murkier. Huston covered the creative spectrum as an artist, writer and director, adding performance to his roster in later years. His distinctive voice, like a cigar smoker with a penchant for gravel sandwiches, lent itself to Gandalf in the animated TV versions of The Hobbit and The Return Of The King.