8 Actors Who Were Paid Huge Salaries For Very Little Work

Marlon Brando was one of the greatest (and most eccentric) actors of his, or any other generation for that matter. Consistently unpredictable, production crews could never predict what the day had in store whenever Brando was on set. As well as securing the most lucrative contract in movie history, Brando's antics during the troubled shoot for Richard Donner's superhero classic have become the stuff of legend.

The actor initially signed on to play Jor-El in 1975, with a basic salary of $3.7m as well as 11.75% of the movie's profits, a deal that was completely unheard of at the time. On top of the well-documented behind-the-scenes issues that constantly plagued the beleaguered 19 month back-to-back shoot for Superman and Superman II, Brando didn't even want to appear on screen by the time it came to shoot his scenes. According to producer Ilya Salkind, the actor either wanted to appear as a talking suitcase or a sentient glowing green bagel. That certainly would have made for a much different movie.

In the end, Donner convinced the Method legend to film his part in person, but the actor refused to learn any of his lines and instead read directly from cue-cards that were placed off-camera. When the movie was released to critical and commercial success and a worldwide gross of over $300m, Brando netted around $19m for only twelve days work. Over 35 years on, it remains the most expensive cameo in movie history and adjusted for inflation is well over $50m. Not bad for a dozen minutes of screentime.

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