10 Hidden Details You Completely Missed In Outstanding Biopics
5. Real Frank Abagnale Cameo - Catch Me If You Can
It's not exactly rare for real life figures to pop up in the Hollywood biopics based on their lives.
Jordan Belfort showed up at the end of The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), Erin Brockovich plays a waitress in Erin Brockovich (2000) and Jim Lovell portrayed the captain of the USS Iwo Jima in the closing stages of Apollo 13 (1995).
Yet, Frank Abagnale Jr.'s special brief appearance in the film Catch Me If You Can (2002), which was based on his real life past as a con man, feels particularly brilliant due to the character he ends up in playing in the Steven Spielberg feature.
When Leonardo DiCaprio's on-screen Abagnale is taken away by French police officers after finally being caught by Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), the real Abagnale can be spotted hand-cuffing the actor before he's taken away in a car.
What makes this easily missed cameo role so creative is the fact that Abagnale is playing the very thing he was trying to outrun for much of his younger years: a police officer.
Also, who else can say they've arrested themselves in an Academy Award nominated film?