9 Bizarre Minor Movie Cameos Made By Massive Actors

2. Bill Murray Scene-Stealing (But Not Movie-Dominating) Turn Zombieland

Bill Murray's appearance as himself in Zombieland is quite possibly the finest cameo ever. Well built up yet efficient in execution, it's an unexpected bit-part that manages to encapsulate everything that makes Murray great (from his love of Ghostbusters to dismissal of Garfield) and boasts the greatest punchline of his career. Heck, probably of comedy in general - I don't think I've ever laughed quite as much than at Jesse Eisenberg shooting a punking Murray.

It's so utterly, completely perfect, which makes it'll all the more bizarre that it wasn't conceived with Murray in mind. In fact, he was a very last minute addition to the movie, with his script written the night before and most of the part improvised. Director Ruben Fleischer simply hadn't thought he'd be able to get the legend, and It was only Woody Harrelson's personal connections that saved the day in the end.

The first draft of the script had Patrick Swayze instead (with a joke-y recreation of Ghost's pottery scene), with various later versions positing a wide-range of stars, from Sylvester Stallone to Mark Hamill to Matthew McConaughey. I guess the only prerequisite is that Tallahassee needs to be obsessed with them, so all of these choices work (even if with Matthew McConaughey in 2009 it'd be with a hint of irony), but could any of them have so nailed the role like Murray without distracting from the rest of the film? Hell no.