10 Incredibly Sneaky Film Director Cameos You Totally Missed

8. Francis Ford Coppola In Apocalypse Now

Francis Ford Coppola Apocalypse Now Cameo
United Artists

Francis Ford Coppola is known to be something of a control freak on the movie set, and this brief appearance in his 1979 war-epic knowingly pokes fun at that fact.

At one point in the movie, Willard walks past an army film crew, the director of which can be seen yelling at Willard to walk past without looking at the camera, asking him to keep up his appearance as a soldier without acknowledging the presence of the film crew.

And that overly-pushy director is played by Ford Coppola himself.

Admittedly, the thick bushy beard is a bit of a giveaway, but it's nonetheless a quick moment that's easy to miss - and it's pretty hilarious when you realise that Ford Coppola is effectively playing himself.

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Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!